Ana B. Ibarra
Reporter | CalMattersAna B. Ibarra covers health care for CalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics, and a JPR news partner.. Her reporting largely focuses on issues around access to care and affordability. Before joining CalMatters, Ana worked as a reporter at KFF Health News, where she covered the Legislature and California health agencies.
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Starting in 2025, California tortillas will contain folic acid to help prevent birth defects—a change aimed at closing a gap for Latina mothers. -
Senior Californians in rural communities are dying by suicide at troubling rates—struggling with pain, cut off from doctors and mental health care, with guns at hand. Access to care and safety planning would help, experts say. -
More than five million low-income Californians are expected to lose their CalFresh food assistance benefits starting Saturday. States are suing the Trump administration to reinstate aid. -
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. -
Hospitals argue that spending caps imposed by an affordability office will result in layoffs, cuts in health care services and reduced access to care for Californians. -
In California, kindergartners repeat worries heard at home. Older kids text to check on parents during class. Therapists say mental health is at risk now and in the long term. -
Glenn Medical Center’s ‘heartbreaking’ closure will put 150 people out of work and send rural patients to neighboring counties for care. -
Lower-income people will be the hardest hit. Over the next 10 years, 3.4 million Californians could lose coverage. -
A proposal in Congress would require some adults to document 80 hours a month of work or school. Experts say the red tape and paperwork is so cumbersome that even people who work will lose their health insurance. -
Only 14 school districts and county offices of education have begun billing for behavioral health services under the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative Fee Schedule Program, according to state health officials. -
Potential cuts to Medicaid have Californians bracing for changes that could weaken recent gains in mental health care and addiction treatment. -
California is spending more than it expected on Medi-Cal and Republican lawmakers are pointing to coverage expansions that benefited immigrant households.
