Government

Let's hope that the state's Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) is tougher on Centene and Health Net and their proposed merger than it was at a recent public meeting. 

In a letter sent to the DMHC, Consumer Watchdog urged the agency to prohibit Centene from shuttering any of Health Net's commercial plans, require it to upgrade any physician network issues and prevent executives from removing any reserves from California to pay for lavish compensation packages related to the deal. 

Over in Paris, other countries think California and its leader, Governor Jerry Brown, have it nailed on stopping climate change. Earlier this year, in Sacramento, Chistiana Figueres, the top United Nations official on the climate talks, put it like this: “The world is committed, but they don’t know how. California has figured out how.”

Mergers, civic engagement and campaign finance are on the schedule for this week. In addition, the Independent Review Panel for the Department of Toxic Substances Control will be having two meetings on reform. Wednesday's meeting may be especially contentious, considering environmental groups will be laying out internal problems with the DTSC that need to be fixed.