Santa Cruz County Health Articles

After months of work promoting Measure N—efforts that included going door to door in the vast Pajaro Valley Health Care District (PVHCD)—officials can now begin to envision how they will use the $116 million to improve Watsonville Community Hospital.

The UCSC Campus Mobile Crisis Team is the first of its kind on a University of California campus. The CMCT provides an empathetic, non-police response to emergency calls regarding mental health crises on campus. Following a series of police killings …

It’s been a nail-biter of a week for supporters of Measure N, the $116 million Watsonville Community Hospital bond, as the measure as been hovering about 2 percentage points above its required target.

Watsonville’s Measure N is holding steady at 68.5% of the vote, just over the 66.6% majority needed to pass.

“Intelligent” speed-limiting technology will be required in all new California cars starting in 2027, if a new law authored by San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener passes.

With traffic deaths now regularly topping 300 per year, Measure HLA on the March 5 ballot gives Los Angeles voters the opportunity to force their reluctant city to implement new traffic safety measures.

As the COVID pandemic eased, so did the epidemic of death on the road. Somewhat. But the ongoing crisis of traffic fatalities remains at high levels with early numbers form 2023 appearing to top 4,000 in California.

State lawmakers reconvene with a lot of problems to fix, but not a lot of money to spend on solutions with a projected $68 billion budget deficit.

Watsonville Community Hospital. Pajaronian file photo
Just two years ago, Watsonville Community Hospital was saddled with a $30 million debt and was facing bankruptcy and possible closure.

Undocumented Californians are leaving health care clinics with “smiles” after they learn they’re newly eligible for Medi-Cal insurance. The health insurance expansion was decades in the making for immigrant advocates.

Surprise ambulance bills can leave families deeply in debt after a medical emergency. A new state law that forces insurance companies to negotiate payments is expected to save Californians tens of millions of dollars a year.

California is modernizing how it pays health care providers through Medi-Cal. Some mental health providers say the changes endanger their services.

An investigative report shows how California companies and governments avoid the Golden State’s strict environmental regulations by shipping toxic waste across state borders. New reporting shows how California exports the risk to Mexico.

The federal government suspended an annual Medicaid renewal requirement during COVID-19. Now that it has resumed, many Californians are losing coverage for “procedural reasons.”

The California food banks association warns of rising food insecurity, but its pleas for more state aid face a tough slog next year due to the projected budget deficit, as a federal program to help people get enough food is …

Poverty in California was reduced by record levels during the COVID pandemic, but now those economic support programs have come to an end and poverty is on the rise again.