Santa Cruz County Local News: Health

02/06/2024
Change is coming to Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center.

02/05/2024
States are plowing billions of dollars into a high-stakes health care experiment that’s exploding around the country: using scarce public health insurance money to provide housing for the poorest and sickest Americans.

02/04/2024
One year after California became the first state to require its public universities to provide the abortion pill to students, basic information on where or how students can obtain the medication is lacking.

02/02/2024
When wildfire smoke and extreme heat combine, they create “a synergistic effect” or an “additional burden” on people’s health, researchers say.

02/01/2024
Each fall, millions of hunters across North America bag deer. Over the winter, people chow down on the venison steaks, sausage, and burgers made from the animals.

01/31/2024
Gov. Gavin Newsom crafted the measure to reform California’s mental health system, including a $6.4-billion bond for new facilities.

01/31/2024
As Californians increasingly feel the health effects of climate change, state leaders are adopting sweeping policies they hope will fend off the worst impacts.

01/29/2024
A pending bill would extend the so-called 5150 confinement authority to county-designated psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists, and clinical counselors.

01/28/2024
Rates of routine childhood vaccination hit a 10-year low in 2023. That, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, puts about 250,000 kindergartners at risk for measles.

01/28/2024
The March ballot measure would raise billions for mental health care, but some clinics fear it would strip them of revenue they need for services they provide today.

01/26/2024
Salud Para La Gente in Watsonville was one of two health care programs in Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s district to receive funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Center Program.

01/25/2024
Those pandemic puppies are growing up to be a public health concern.

01/25/2024
A U.S. Senate committee launched an examination of assisted living, holding its first hearing in two decades on the industry as leaders of both parties expressed concern about the high cost and mixed quality of care facilities.

01/23/2024
In the year and a half since its launch, 988—the country’s easy-to-remember suicide and crisis hotline—has received about 8.1 million calls, texts, and chats. Curiosity is growing about the people taking those calls.

01/19/2024
At the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, scientists are eager to explore whether a psychedelic chemical found in a toad could help people with depression. But research has been put on hold by the state.

01/16/2024
The number of older adults with disabilities that affect their performance of daily tasks will soar in the decades ahead, as baby boomers enter their 70s, 80s, and 90s.

01/15/2024
On the campaign trail, former President Donald Trump is again promising to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act—a nebulous goal that became one of his administration's splashiest policy failures.

01/15/2024
The Assembly has until the end of January to decide the fate of the youth tackle football bill, which would prevent kids under 12 from playing the sport to protect them from brain trauma.