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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The Legislature is considering phasing out chemical additives in school meals linked to health problems. Opponents say the definitions are so broad that it could ban items like tomato sauce and olive oil. -
Many undocumented immigrants have long feared that their Medi-Cal data would be used against them. Newsom calls it “an abuse.” -
Newsom’s Medi-Cal budget plan would shift money for voter-approved increases in doctors’ pay and reproductive care to cover other expenses. The cost of the low-income health insurance program has been growing rapidly. -
California uses Medicaid to pay for a range of nontraditional health care services, including housing. The Trump administration wants to scale back those programs. -
California voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure that increases pay to doctors with Medi-Cal patients. The Newsom administration missed an early deadline to begin implementing it. -
The Trump administration clawed back hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to California health agencies, likely affecting investigations into disease outbreaks and other public health services. -
California is spending more than it expected on Medi-Cal and Republican lawmakers are pointing to coverage expansions that benefited immigrant households. -
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to see tangible results from the $6.4 billion mental health bond voters approved last year. Moving fast carries a risk of neglecting under-resourced communities. -
Gov. Gavin Newsom has yet to make good on his promise of state-produced, affordable insulin for diabetics. What's the hold up? -
President “Trump had a particularly significant impact on the 9th Circuit” in his first term, moving the reliably liberal appeals court to the right. That could influence abortion policy in the West. -
Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020 signed a law allowing California to manufacture its own insulin, an effort to bring down the cost of the drug. The project is years away from delivering medicine to anyone, although prices have fallen for other reasons. -
Birth centers are midwife-run facilities that deliver babies outside of hospitals. They have struggled to stay in business in part because of strict state licensing requirements.
