Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: California needs a robust mental health workforce. The California Future Health Workforce Commission recommends practical ways to solve the state’s behavioral health workforce shortages.

A new report from the California Future Health Workforce Commission charts a clear path to ensure that our state has the right people in the right places to deliver the care that is needed most.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: During the five-week government shutdown, federal contractors, new hires, and workers who recently changed health plans due to life events faced lapsed insurance, unfilled prescriptions, and unpaid medical bills.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Nadine Burke Harris, MD, MPH, has been appointed as California's first-ever surgeon general. She brings a career of expertise on the effects of childhood adversity to her new role.

A statewide poll reveals that Californians are deeply aware of the state's lack of mental health providers — and they're worried about how to pay for care.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: If knowledge is power, patients across the country got stronger on January 1, when a new national health care transparency policy took effect. But will consumers really benefit?

An innovative program in Washington connects peer support counselors whose personal experience of recovery from mental illness or addiction helps them deliver behavioral health services to patients — at pivotal moments in their lives.

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Governor Gavin Newsom aims to “move us closer to health care for all” by addressing access to coverage for undocumented adults, drug prices, the high cost of health care, and more.

Between his first executive orders and his new budget plan, California Governor Gavin Newsom is putting his health care agenda into motion with important proposals to help more Californians get and keep coverage.

Democrats have taken control of the US House of Representatives, while the GOP continues its dominion over the Senate. What will this "split Congress" mean for health care?

Alan Weil, editor in chief of the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs, shares his perceptions of the past, present, and future of California health policy.

A federal judge declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. Now what?

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Because of severe wildfire damage, the sole hospital and biggest employer in Paradise, California, is unlikely to reopen before 2020 — if ever. 

Regardless of the outcome of the Kaiser Permanente mental health workers strike, the need for state health policy leaders to reduce California's worsening shortage of behavioral health providers is urgent.

A groundbreaking Medi-Cal program is enabling substance use disorder treatment facilities to say yes to more patients seeking care, yes to more flexibility regarding treatment plans, and yes to hiring more workers to treat people in need.