How a Health Care Safety Net for the Poor Became California’s Top Priority

Medi-Cal’s Rapid Expansion Is a Triumph—And an Opportunity

Welcome, Californians, to the era of Medi-Cal for All.

“Medicare for All,” the political dream of extending federal health program for the elderly and disabled to all Americans, still gets the headlines. But here in the nation’s most populous state, it is Medicaid—or Medi-Cal, as the federal health program for the poor is called in California—that comes closest to providing a universal safety net. Medi-Cal deserves more attention now because its no-or-low-cost health services provide a vital backstop in this time of pandemic and freefalling employment, and because it holds possibilities …

Medi-Cal and My Wary Heart

Signing up for Insurance Was the Easy Part

I come from heart attacks the way some people come from farming families. If not a proud lineage, ours is sure a vast one. It cost me both parents—my dad …

What Do Gay Marriage and Obamacare Have in Common?

Two Cases Before the Supreme Court Point to the Long-Running Battle Between States Rights and Federal Authority

I don’t drink champagne, but if the Supreme Court strikes down state bans on gay marriages this month, I might pop open a bottle in celebration. As a newspaper editorial …

Kaiser Health News Editor Julie Marquis

Any Murder Mystery Will Do

Julie Marquis is California editor of Kaiser Health News. Before moderating a panel on Obamacare in the Inland Empire, she talked in the Zócalo green room about the ugliest piece …

The Bay Area Council’s Micah Weinberg

Dietary Supplements Are Not Healthcare

Micah Weinberg is president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and previously served as senior policy advisor to the Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored, public policy advocacy organization. Before …

Western Health Advantage’s Garry Maisel

Knows the Affordable Care Act and a Great Joke about an Elephant

Garry Maisel is the CEO of Western Health Advantage, a regional HMO based in Sacramento. Before participating in a panel on whether or not Obamacare gives Sacramento more healthcare choices, he …