In California, A $1 Billion Takeback of Children's Health Money?

Here's the latest in health and health journalism news from Reporting on Health.

Children's Health: In California, Orange County officials are pushing back against Gov. Jerry Brown's bid to take back $1 billion in First 5 children's health money to ease the state's deficit, Tracy Wood reports for Voice of OC. What's happening in your county?

Hospital Costs: A stay in a Northern California hospital will cost you – or your insurer – a lot more than one in Southern Calif., Duke Helfand reports for the Los Angeles Times. Healthcare economists say that the Northern hospitals have a lot more market power, allowing them to charge higher prices.

Mental Health: On Time's Healthland blog, Maia Szalavitz critiques Gardiner Harris' New York Times story on psychiatrists increasingly turning away from talk therapy in favor of prescribing medication. Could talk therapy be provided just as effectively and less expensively by psychologists and other counselors without medical degrees?

Pharma Costs: Drug makers spend far less to develop and bring a new medication to market than the $1.3 billion they often claim, two researchers contend in a study published in the journal BioSocieties, Michelle Pflumm reports for the Nature.com blog Spoonful of Medicine.

Commuter Health: Okay, gross: San Francisco BART commuter train seats harbor antibiotic-resistant fecal and skin bacteria, Zusha Elinson reports for the Bay Citizen.

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