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The California Legislature passed a pair of bills greenlighting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign to build 10,000 new beds and housing units and increase drug addiction treatment as part of his response to the state’s homelessness and drug crises. The Democratic governor is expected to sign the bills, which received bipartisan support. Newsom will now ask voters to approve the changes on the March primary ballot.
About 810,000, or 1 in 10, Los Angeles County adults together owe more than $2.6 billion in medical debt as of 2021, a new analysis has found — a staggering sum that suggests extending health coverage to more people doesn’t necessarily protect them from burdensome debt. medical debt disproportionately affects the uninsured and underinsured, low-income residents, and Black and Latino populations. It said the consequences are alarming, noting that debt negatively impacts factors that determine future health outcomes, such as housing, employment, food security, and access to prescriptions and health care.
High school students at Oakland Technical High School in Oakland, Calif., Monday, May 1, 2017.
Although students don’t face punitive consequences for excused absences, unexcused absences can lead to students being denied credit for missed work, excluded from extracurricular activities, and eventually taken to court and fined. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students are much more likely to have their absences labeled unexcused. This is also true for Black, Native American, Latino and Pacific Islander students relative to white, Asian American and Filipino students. Black students experience the largest disparity.
A new bill introduced by California State Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) aims to bring extra funding for California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) participants in need of menstrual products, a necessity that can be too expensive for low-income individuals to purchase.