Kristen Hwang
CalMattersKristen Hwang is a health reporter for CalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics, and a JPR news partner.. She covers health care access, abortion and reproductive health, workforce issues, drug costs and emerging public health matters.
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Labor and health care groups are collecting signatures to put a measure that would levy a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of about 200 billionaires in California. -
An injection of public funding means the nonprofit organization can keep primary care clinics operating. But with more financial troubles looming, lawmakers say there’s more work to be done to protect reproductive health services. -
Birth centers are disappearing in California. A newly-signed law expands support for labor and delivery services to address the problem. -
Lawmakers have focused on the high cost of diabetes drugs. The announcement will make state-branded insulin available two years later than the governor originally promised. -
California health officials will now decide which ingredients, additives, dyes, and other forms of processing don’t belong in school meals and K-12 cafeterias. -
Social Security and Medicare benefits will keep flowing in a government shutdown, but federal employees will be working without pay and delays likely will occur across many services. -
Whether federal cuts are legal is still undecided. But local health departments have closed clinics, stopped programs, cut immunization appointments, and laid off workers anyway. -
Millions of consumers will feel the pinch when rates already expected to rise will jump even further. Federal subsidies, set to expire at year’s end, are partly to blame. -
California’s suit contends that Trump’s signature tax law is unconstitutionally vague and requires states to violate Planned Parenthood’s First Amendment rights. -
Only a handful of Planned Parenthood organizations will continue to receive money from the federal government. None of them are in California. -
The GOP budget bill made significant changes to Covered California, which experts and insurers say will increase out-of-pocket costs for consumers. -
Doctors regularly need to pay more than $300,000 for medical school, including tuition and housing. New regulations signed by President Donald Trump cap their federal borrowing at $200,000 for medical degrees.
