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California Watch

News stories in this section spotlight activities in California, including actions by the state Assembly and state Senate; proposed legislation; regulators like the Department of Managed Health Care and Department of Insurance; and the state ACA exchange, Covered California.

Coping With (Power) Loss: California’s Hospitals, Clinics, Patients Face New Reality

California’s recurrent power outages this year by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison, in response to wildfire threats up and down the state, have forced patients to think about how they get care when the power is cut at hospitals and clinics.

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California’s New Gig Economy Worker Law Faces First Lawsuit

The California Trucking Association has filed what appears to be the first lawsuit challenging a sweeping new labor law seeking to give wage and benefit protections to workers in the so-called gig economy, including rideshare drivers at companies such as Uber and Lyft.

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Dialysis Patients Panic As Financial ‘Life Raft’ Becomes Unmoored

Russell Desmond received a letter a few weeks ago from the American Kidney Fund that he said felt like “a smack on the face.”

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Does Gavin Newsom Have the Answer to Democrats’ Health Care Fights?

A year and a half ago, Gavin Newsom was in the same place as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, running in a tough Democratic primary and vowing “it’s about time” for a single-payer health care system while dismissing his critics as “can’t-do Democrats” who refuse to think big.

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Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson Dead at 60

Bernard J. Tyson, the chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, died in his sleep early Sunday, the company confirmed. Tyson, who was appointed CEO of the medical group and health care provider in 2013, “unexpectedly passed away early today in his sleep,”

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The Air Ambulance Billed More Than His Surgeon Did For A Lung Transplant

Before his double lung transplant, Tom Saputo thought he had anticipated every possible outcome. But after the surgery, he wasn’t prepared for the price of the 27-mile air ambulance flight to UCLA Medical Center — which cost more than the lifesaving operation itself.

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Uber, Lyft, DoorDash Launch a $90-million Fight Against California Labor Law

Uber, Lyft and DoorDash submitted a California ballot measure Tuesday to exempt their business operations from a sweeping new state labor law.

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Wildfires, Power Outages Cause Unprecedented Healthcare Disruption in California

Healthcare leaders told The Bee that they are confronting a level of disruption to delivering care and running their businesses that they have never seen in their careers as a result of the California wildfires and Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s planned blackouts.

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Court Orders California Insurance Company Conserved in Another Development in Applied Battle

A San Mateo County Superior Court on Monday evening issued an order appointing the California Department of Insurance’s Conservation and Liquidation Office as conservator of California Insurance Co.

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New California Law to Affect Life-LTC Hybrids

A new California law could affect the design of life insurance-based long-term care (LTC) hybrid products.

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