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Medi-Cal Agency’s New Head Wants to Tackle Disparities and Racism

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3 years ago

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When Will Lightbourne looked at the statistics behind California’s coronavirus cases, the disparities were “blindingly clear”: Blacks and Latinos are dying at higher rates than most other Californians.

As of Monday, Latinos account for 45.6% of coronavirus deaths in a state where they make up 38.9% of the population, according to data collected by the California Department of Public Health. Blacks account for 8.5% of the deaths but make up 6% of the population.

Lightbourne, who led California’s Department of Social Services under Gov. Jerry Brown, describes this pandemic as one that “rips the bandage off” a health care system long riddled with inequity.

So, when Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Lightbourne, 70, to come out of retirement in June to lead the Department of Health Care Services, he said, he couldn’t say no.

“He has committed his whole professional life to public service,” said Mike Herald, director of policy advocacy at the Western Center on Law & Poverty. “He’s not joking when he talks about the importance of these issues and the important role that government plays in addressing societal inequities.”

The Department of Health Care Services oversees the state’s Medicaid program for low-income people, called Medi-Cal, which provides health care to some 12.5 million Californians.

Lightbourne said he sees the job as a chance to refocus Medi-Cal on reducing disparities — improving people’s health not only by providing better access to doctors, but also by linking them with behavioral health programs and using health care dollars to get them into housing.

He said the department also plans to amend contracts with health providers and use routine performance reviews to make sure providers are addressing disparities.

Health care advocates say Lightbourne has a track record of getting things done.

At the Department of Social Services, he persuaded Brown, a known penny pincher, to increase cash assistance to low-income families, restoring cuts lawmakers had made in the Great Recession. And he was instrumental behind the scenes in the repeal of the contentious policy that had prohibited Californians from receiving increased welfare income if they had more children while receiving public assistance, Herald said.

“Will is very purpose-driven and has made substantive changes in every role he has ever had,” said Graham Knaus, executive director of the California State Association of Counties.

Before embarking on state service, Lightbourne served as director of the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency, the Human Services Agency of the City & County of San Francisco and the Santa Cruz County Human Services Agency.

Lightbourne’s local and state experience give him a valuable skill set as state and county officials grapple with providing health care to some of California’s most vulnerable residents during a pandemic, Knaus and other advocates said.

The task won’t be easy. The previous director of the Department of Health Care Services, Brad Gilbert, left the job after less than four months.

Lightbourne talked to California Healthline about why he returned to state government, how the department is responding to COVID-19 and how he hopes to improve access to health care for those who need it. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Why did you come out of retirement to take a job that’s difficult under normal circumstances — and even tougher during a pandemic?

Events of the past six months have made it blindingly clear that we’ve got structural inequities that are not just immoral but are, at an existential level, unsurvivable. It’s a pandemic that landed on top of a pandemic of inequalities, opportunity and income that’s been raging since the 1980s. And that pandemic has been enabled by a pandemic of racism that has rotted in our society for generations.

I think we have to use the moment to insist that our publicly financed health care system really partners up with our public health network and with our social safety-net system to address community and population health with a laser focus on reducing disparities.

Q: How has the department responded to COVID-19 to address the most vulnerable Californians?

The growth in telehealth is something that would not have occurred without this experience. There’s work still underway to look at how we can come up with some approaches to reduce the number of people in skilled nursing facilities, where the rate of spread is so much more severe and with really mortal results.

I have the suspicion that we’re never really going to get to a point where we say the effect of COVID is over. The mere fact that so much health care utilization is down now, particularly down in the places where people who start at a disadvantage normally seek care, we’re going to find long-term health consequences into the future, even post-vaccine.

Q: In January, Gov. Newsom outlined a proposal to broaden a Medi-Cal program known as CalAIM that addresses physical and behavioral health needs in patients’ care, and even pays for their housing with health care money. Can your department still move forward with those goals even though there isn’t money in the budget for it?

We may be delayed to some extent. It was never intended initially as a big-bang system change. It was always going to be a degree of iterative development, and that remains true — whether some things have to go a little slower because of money reasons.

Q: You have talked about access to health care and how COVID-19 has really highlighted systemic disparities. In Medi-Cal, lack of access to care has long been a problem, especially in rural areas. So has inadequate care for children. Are those issues you intend to address?

One of the things we need is an adequate network of providers that really covers the medically underserved areas of the state. We need to work effectively with our rural health clinics, as well as our urban Federally Qualified Health Centers to expand access, particularly to the populations that historically haven’t had that access.

In terms of services for children, that’s a big part of that agenda both in physical and behavioral health and also the dental health system. There’s a big focus on how to improve access and preventive services for children.

Q: In the Great Recession, California lawmakers made many deep cuts to safety-net programs, some of which have been restored only recently. The governor proposed a number of health care-related cuts this year that were ultimately rejected by the legislature. How will you ensure that Medi-Cal enrollees won’t see their benefits scaled back in the future?

It’s going to be my job to make the case not to reduce services that poor people rely on. That said, we live in the real world and if we ever have to reduce things, my approach would be to try to say, “How can we reduce things we can readily rebuild rather than destroy things that are foundational?”

Goal No. 1 at this point is to work very closely with our congressional delegation to really encourage the federal government to support the core services and activities so that we can meet the needs of the people of the state.


This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

—————–

By: Samantha Young
Title: Medi-Cal Agency’s New Head Wants to Tackle Disparities and Racism
Sourced From: khn.org/news/medi-cal-agencys-new-head-wants-to-tackle-disparities-and-racism/
Published Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2020 09:00:05 +0000

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Ends-of-the-World Every Year Since 1970

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3 years ago

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August 14, 2020

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There always has been and always will be a reason not to invest or not to stay invested. This is all the mainstream media reports to us. Below you will find a list of some of the worst global events each year since 1970. I have some commentary to follow.

1970: War: US troops invade Cambodia.
1971: Civil Unrest: Anti-war militants march on Washington.
1972: Political: Start of Watergate Scandal.
1973: Economic: OPEC raises oil prices in response to US involvement abroad.
1974: Political: Nixon resigns as President of the United States.
1975: Political: Multiple assassination attempts on President Ford.
1976: World: Ebola virus.
1977: Political: Government shutdowns.
1978: Market: U.S. Dollar plunges to record low against many European currencies.
1979: World: Iranian militants seize the U.S. embassy in Teheran and hold hostages.
1980: Economic: Inflation spiked to a high of 14.76%.
1981: Political: President Reagan assassination attempt.
1982: Economic: Recession continues in the U.S. with nationwide unemployment of 10.8%.
1983: Economic: Unemployment in the U.S. reaches 12 million.
1984: Economic: 70 U.S. banks fail during the year.
1985: World: Multiple airplane hijackings around the world.
1986: World: Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station explodes.
1987: Market: DOW drops by 22.6% on October 22.
1988: Environment: Awareness of global warming and the greenhouse effect grows.
1989: Environment: Exxon Valdez dumps 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound.
1990: World: Persian Gulf War starts.
1991: World: Mass shooting in Killeen, TX.
1992: Human Rights: Los Angeles riots following the death of Rodney King.
1993: Terrorism: World Trade Center bombing.
1994: World: Mass genocide in Rwanda.
1995: Terrorism: Oklahoma City bombing.
1996: Terrorism: Olympic Park bombing.
1997: World: Bird flu.
1998: World: Multiple U.S. embassy bombings.
1999: World: Columbine shooting.
2000: Economic: Start of the Dotcom Market Crash.
2001: Terrorism: Terrorist Attacks in NYC, DC & PA.
2002: Economic: Nasdaq bottomed after a 76.81% drop.
2003: World: The U.S. invades Iraq.
2004: World: The U.S. launches an attack on Falluja.
2005: World: Hurricane Katrina
2006: World: Bird flu.
2007: Economic: Start of the Great Recession.
2008: Economic: Great Recession continues.
2009: Economic: S&P bottomed after a 56.8% drop.
2010: Market: Flash crash.
2011: Market: Occupy Wall Street and S&P downgrades U.S. Debt.
2012: Political: Fiscal cliff.
2013: Political: Taper tantrum.
2014: World: Ebola virus.
2015: World: Multiple mass shootings.
2016: Political: Divided U.S. Presidential election.
2017: World: North Korea testing nuclear weapons.
2018: Economic: U.S. & China trade war.
2019: Economic: Student loan debt reaches an all-time high of $1.4 trillion.
2020: World: COVID-19.

While many of these events were undoubtedly terrible (and there are certainly others not named here that were worse), most of these were broadcast as end-of-the-world events for the stock market. Despite that attention, it is worth noting that these were, for the most part, one-time events. In other words, most faded into the newspapers of history. We moved on.

Obviously, some caused monumental shifts in the way the world works. Just think about how much air travel continues to be impacted by the events of 9/11. But, outside of the resulting inconveniences (if we want to call safety protocols inconveniences) associated with air travel, flying is safer than ever before.

Take a look at just about any of the events and you will find there are many that people will hardly remember. My point here isn’t that these events are to be ignored or that they were easy to stomach at the time, but that they have become a distant memory.

I want to also make the point that we should expect these types of negative events. As investors, we know these types of crises, economic catastrophes, and global phenomena are going to happen.

But in almost all cases, here is what we can say in the next breath – this too shall pass.

Will there be legal, humanitarian, economic, or some other aid required as a result of these events? Almost certainly the answer is yes, but that doesn’t mean it they won’t eventually fade into history.

Lastly, what’s worth noting is how the market has performed over these last 50 years despite the continual advertisements of the world crashing down around us. On January 2, 1970, the Dow Jones stood at 809 and the S&P at 90 -> those are not typos. These same indexes have grown (not including dividends) to 26,387 and 3,232 respectively. Amazing, no?

Perhaps what gets overlooked more than anything else is what separates the above one-time negative events from the positive stories that go largely ignored over our lifetimes. And that is a story worth telling. See the companion post below:

Unheralded Positive Events Every Year Since 1970

Stay the Course,
Ashby

Retirement Field Guide Mission:

“To help 10 million people make better retirement decisions.”

If you would like to join us in achieving our mission, I hope you will consider sharing our site if you have found it helpful in your own retirement planning.

This post is not advice. Please see additional disclaimers.

The post Ends-of-the-World Every Year Since 1970 appeared first on Retirement Field Guide.

—————–

By: Ashby Daniels, CFP®
Title: Ends-of-the-World Every Year Since 1970
Sourced From: retirementfieldguide.com/ends-of-the-world-every-year-since-1970/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ends-of-the-world-every-year-since-1970
Published Date: Tue, 04 Aug 2020 13:26:19 +0000

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Wildfire prone property insurance bill in California due for hearing

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3 years ago

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August 14, 2020

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The post Wildfire prone property insurance bill in California due for hearing appeared first on Live Insurance News.

The bill is expected to be heard in upcoming weeks as opposing sites prepare for major battle.

A new California bill, the outcomes of which will have a lot to say about coverage for wildfire prone property in the state, will soon be headed for hearing. The hearing is expected to be a heated one as strong opposing opinions have the opportunity to be voiced.

Opponents of this bill are calling it a direct attack on consumer protections in insurance.

That said, proponents of the bill claim it is the best method for making coverage available to wildfire prone property in California. The bill in question is Assembly Bill 2167. It was written by Assemblyperson Tom Daly (D-Anaheim). If it passes,it will create the Insurance Market Action Plan (IMAP) program. The IMAP program is meant to protect residential properties.

So far, AB 2167 has progressed quickly, when taking into consideration that a chunk of the legislature has been considerably restricted by pandemic crisis precautions. It was first presented in early June and backers have been saying that it was brought forward in good timing and that it has all the momentum it needs to be passed.

That said, AB 2167 has not been without opposition. In fact, it has faced considerable opposition, having been called an attack on Proposition 103, insurance consumer protection law. California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara lobbed that argument at it, calling it an “insurance industry wish list, with nothing to help consumers,” and Consumer Watchdog, whose founder, Harvey Rosenfeld, was the original author of Proposition 103.

The insurance industry strongly supports the bill, saying it will help wildfire prone property coverage.

Insurance organizations such as the American Property Casualty Insurance Association and the Personal Insurance Federation both support AB 2167. The bill also has the support of the California Association of Counties (CSAC), as well as Fire Safe Councils of California, and the CalFIRE union.

The Consumer Federation of America, another watchdog organization, has predicted that if AB 2167 passes, it will cause 40 percent increases in insurance rates. On the other hand, insurance groups claim that the bill offers owners of wildfire prone property a greater opportunity for choice and competition among insurance companies based on coverage and premiums while avoiding the limitations and high costs associated with FAIR Plan coverage.

The post Wildfire prone property insurance bill in California due for hearing appeared first on Live Insurance News.

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By: Marc
Title: Wildfire prone property insurance bill in California due for hearing
Sourced From: www.liveinsurancenews.com/wildfire-prone-property-insurance-bill-in-california-due-for-hearing/8549884/
Published Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2020 09:00:14 +0000

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Is this the last hurrah for bonds?

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3 years ago

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August 13, 2020

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Recently, I have written quite a bit about the long-term return expectations for investing in bonds. See here, here, here and here.

Spoiler alert: I don’t think it’s good.

But long-term bonds this year have been quite an amazing story as the COVID pandemic has caused the Fed to take historically monumental actions. As a result, we’ve watched long-term Treasuries tear the roof off the market. For instance, a 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (name withheld for compliance purposes) is up more than 31% YTD as of July 31st.

That is insane!

But there is a good reason for this increase shown below.

The red circle shows a decrease in the 30-year Treasury rate of almost 40% over a span of six months. That’s practically unprecedented with only two periods (2008 and 1981-1982) having similar declines over such short periods.

But this begs the question: Is this the last hurrah for bonds as a driver of any meaningful return? Below is the 30-Year Treasury rate over the last 40+ years.

For what it’s worth, people have been forecasting the end of the bond bull market since 2012 (maybe even earlier) and yet it has continued despite those predictions. But at some point, the bond party will come to an end.

The Fed has been clear that they are going to keep rates stable until at least 2022 which means this may not change for a little while longer. Or in the near term, I could even see the high returns continuing if we experience pandemic economic shutdown round two.

But, I can’t see a world where this is the case for much longer than that – most importantly over the span of a 30-year retirement.

The official end of the bond bull market depends on a recovery from the pandemic economy as well as a few other factors causing rates to rise. But when they do, it seems likely to me that this may be the last great hurrah for bonds for quite some time.

The question is when to get off that train and that undoubtedly requires a personal answer.

Stay the Course,
Ashby

Retirement Field Guide Mission:

“To help 10 million people make better retirement decisions.”

If you would like to join us in achieving our mission, I hope you will consider sharing our site if you have found it helpful in your own retirement planning.

This post is not advice. Please see additional disclaimers.

The post Is this the last hurrah for bonds? appeared first on Retirement Field Guide.

—————–

By: Ashby Daniels, CFP®
Title: Is this the last hurrah for bonds?
Sourced From: retirementfieldguide.com/is-this-the-last-hurrah-for-bonds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=is-this-the-last-hurrah-for-bonds
Published Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2020 13:47:16 +0000

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