California

Charter Schools

New Speaker Must Support Charter School Success

Sacramento Union, March 14, 2008 The California Charter Schools Association held its 15th Annual Meeting in Sacramento in early March. More than 2,000 charter teachers, principals and leaders from across California and the country attended. The conference came on the heels of the election of Assemblywoman Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, ...
California

California Health Care Deforminator Model ABX1 1: A Requiem

The Health Affairs blog has just wrapped up a series of posts from a number of folks who supported, to various degrees, the so-called “reform” that Governor Schwarzenegger and his allies recently tried to foist on California. I suppose that one could generally identify these ladies and gentlemen as “Clintonista” ...
California

California Health Care: Learning from history for a healthier future

After folding on ABX 1 1, the governor now tries his hand at the state’s dwindling budget with desperate ideas to rescind tax credits and request more federal funds. As for health care, the legislature’s “new” approach is incremental change. There are few winning hands thus far. The publicity and ...
California

California’s Convenient Clinics: Some Win, Some Lose, All Change

The Sacramento Business Journal (subscribers only) has surveyed the “drop-in” clinics that have sprouted up around the state’s capital city in the last three years or so. It’s amazing what a diverse group they are! Sutter Express Care, owned by a large non-profit, hospital chain, has been hoping to use ...
California

State should look east for affordable health insurance

One of Sacramento’s great laments is the number of Californians without health insurance. The predictable bad solution has been to propose billions in additional taxes. California has been spared so far from this counterintuitive, costly “solution.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ought to look eastward for a better idea. But ...
Business & Economics

Making the Mortgage Mess Worse

Recently the Bush administration unveiled a plan for homeowners facing foreclosure to receive a 30-day reprieve from their creditors. This might come as welcome news in Sacramento where a jaw-dropping 46 percent of December sales were foreclosed homes. Unfortunately, the latest plan-as well as earlier government ideas to freeze rate ...
Commentary

Judge: San Francisco ‘Play or Pay’ Measure Violates Federal LawFunding Shortfalls

A U.S. district judge has ruled a controversial expansion of a city health care plan violates a federal law addressing government regulation of employee benefit plans. Judge Jeffrey White’s ruling halted the city of San Francisco’s attempt to expand its government health care program through a mandate requiring employers to ...
California

“Thinking Small” on California Health Reform? Not Small Enough!

Using a very appropriate headline, the features editor of the California Healthline points out that California’s “health reformers try again on a smaller scale”. Unfortunately, they are not trying small enough. Although the Schwarzenegger-Nuñez Health Care Deforminator Model ABX1_1 failed in the Senate health committe last month, after a year ...
Commentary

Teachers unions are the big problem

TEACHERS are in a never-ending Groundhog’s Day situation when they rely on the same old union strong-arm tactics to get a few extra crumbs from the Legislature. The citizens of West Virginia have always honored teachers and willingly allowed their elected representatives to pay teachers the maximum the state can ...
California

Healthy San Francisco: Wouldja Like An Employee Voluntary Waiver with Those Fries?

I’ve not only criticized the Healthy San Francisco employer “pay or play” mandate that has dropped a payroll tax of $1.17 to $1.76 per hour on the city’s struggling businesses; I’ve actually proposed an alternative. But…..they went ahead and did it anyway. Pending the Golden Gate Restaurant Association’s legal appeal ...
Charter Schools

New Speaker Must Support Charter School Success

Sacramento Union, March 14, 2008 The California Charter Schools Association held its 15th Annual Meeting in Sacramento in early March. More than 2,000 charter teachers, principals and leaders from across California and the country attended. The conference came on the heels of the election of Assemblywoman Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, ...
California

California Health Care Deforminator Model ABX1 1: A Requiem

The Health Affairs blog has just wrapped up a series of posts from a number of folks who supported, to various degrees, the so-called “reform” that Governor Schwarzenegger and his allies recently tried to foist on California. I suppose that one could generally identify these ladies and gentlemen as “Clintonista” ...
California

California Health Care: Learning from history for a healthier future

After folding on ABX 1 1, the governor now tries his hand at the state’s dwindling budget with desperate ideas to rescind tax credits and request more federal funds. As for health care, the legislature’s “new” approach is incremental change. There are few winning hands thus far. The publicity and ...
California

California’s Convenient Clinics: Some Win, Some Lose, All Change

The Sacramento Business Journal (subscribers only) has surveyed the “drop-in” clinics that have sprouted up around the state’s capital city in the last three years or so. It’s amazing what a diverse group they are! Sutter Express Care, owned by a large non-profit, hospital chain, has been hoping to use ...
California

State should look east for affordable health insurance

One of Sacramento’s great laments is the number of Californians without health insurance. The predictable bad solution has been to propose billions in additional taxes. California has been spared so far from this counterintuitive, costly “solution.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ought to look eastward for a better idea. But ...
Business & Economics

Making the Mortgage Mess Worse

Recently the Bush administration unveiled a plan for homeowners facing foreclosure to receive a 30-day reprieve from their creditors. This might come as welcome news in Sacramento where a jaw-dropping 46 percent of December sales were foreclosed homes. Unfortunately, the latest plan-as well as earlier government ideas to freeze rate ...
Commentary

Judge: San Francisco ‘Play or Pay’ Measure Violates Federal LawFunding Shortfalls

A U.S. district judge has ruled a controversial expansion of a city health care plan violates a federal law addressing government regulation of employee benefit plans. Judge Jeffrey White’s ruling halted the city of San Francisco’s attempt to expand its government health care program through a mandate requiring employers to ...
California

“Thinking Small” on California Health Reform? Not Small Enough!

Using a very appropriate headline, the features editor of the California Healthline points out that California’s “health reformers try again on a smaller scale”. Unfortunately, they are not trying small enough. Although the Schwarzenegger-Nuñez Health Care Deforminator Model ABX1_1 failed in the Senate health committe last month, after a year ...
Commentary

Teachers unions are the big problem

TEACHERS are in a never-ending Groundhog’s Day situation when they rely on the same old union strong-arm tactics to get a few extra crumbs from the Legislature. The citizens of West Virginia have always honored teachers and willingly allowed their elected representatives to pay teachers the maximum the state can ...
California

Healthy San Francisco: Wouldja Like An Employee Voluntary Waiver with Those Fries?

I’ve not only criticized the Healthy San Francisco employer “pay or play” mandate that has dropped a payroll tax of $1.17 to $1.76 per hour on the city’s struggling businesses; I’ve actually proposed an alternative. But…..they went ahead and did it anyway. Pending the Golden Gate Restaurant Association’s legal appeal ...
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