Legislature

The California Medical Association should get over its reactionary opposition to reform that would curb the prescription opioid and heroin overdose epidemic.

Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new painkiller prescription guidelines recommending that doctors check state prescription drug databases before prescribing opioids to a patient. This simple tool has been proven to reduce overprescribing, but only when doctors are required to use it.

California taxpayers dodged a bullet yesterday with the passage of a high-stakes bill to help fund Medi-Cal.

Legislative Democrats and nearly a dozen Republicans approved a plan to trade existing taxes for a new tax on insurers to raise more than $1 billion in needed health care funding and preserve federal Medi-Cal matching funds.

 Today So Cal Gas, and other proponents of the aging natural gas storage infrastructure, face off against Senator Pavley’s proposed moratorium on natural gas drilling at a very- late-in-the-day hearing in the Assembly Utilities Committee ( 3 PM start  for SB 380 and other bills).  It’s hardly a made-for-media moment, scheduled post-newspaper print deadline.  And Pavley’s enemies have not shown their true faces, but their powerful grip has been felt.