To describe homelessness as a “complicating factor” in healthcare is a gross understatement; the homeless die nearly three decades earlier than the general population and their health challenges are innumerable.ⁱ Addiction, mental illness, malnutrition, exposure to a host of infectious diseases related to overcrowding, poor hygiene, a lack of sanitation and IV drug use as well as the threat of violence, routinely undermine the health and wellbeing of this population.  For the homeless, healthcare access is at best-episodic and is often driven by the need for urgent treatment.

Since taking office in January, Governor Gavin Newsom has been busy appointing a team of experts to help propel his healthcare priorities for the people of California. In the governor’s first proclamation document instituting Executive Order N-02-19, he established the state’s first-ever Surgeon General position.

A new report by the California Future Health Workforce Commission may serve as a road map for state leaders to begin work on avoiding workforce shortages in the healthcare field. 

We are off to a very busy legislative year in Sacramento, starting with the newly-elect governor’s first state budget proposal revealed on January 10 for the 2019-2020 fiscal year.

A discussion that is quite likely to continue in both political and public policy arenas in 2019 will be whether California will seriously consider moving toward a healthcare-for-all model. The Golden State is already seeing new legislative attempts toward universal healthcare, or in other terms, “single-payer” healthcare.