Deep Impact, Part 3: More California Budget Cuts

Here's a quick roundup of recent articles localizing the potential impact of federal health reform and California's health budget cuts (see Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's additional $656 million in line-item vetoes here and the full California budget document here).

Bobby Caina Calvan of the Sacramento Bee examines health reform's potential impact on nonprofit hospitals.

Martin Espinoza of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat does the numbers and finds that 10,000 or more children in Sonoma County may lose health insurance because of California's cutbacks to the Healthy Families SCHIP program.

Michael Rothfeld and Evan Halper of the Los Angeles Times cover the potential impact of budget cuts on seniors and other populations.

Li Lou of the San Francisco Sentinel interviews In-Home Supportive Services workers about the coming changes.

KQED's Sarah Varney reports on how one clinic in San Francisco's Chinatown is delivering bad news to families hoping for health insurance help.

In eight years of covering California's health care budget process, I have never seen anything this drastic. In signing the budget today, Schwarzenegger talked about foundations, philanthropists and others stepping in to make up for some of the cuts. Now's the time to start asking the appropriate institutions in your community about such plans - if any.