{"id":82956,"date":"2019-06-01T16:41:36","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T23:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=82956"},"modified":"2019-06-01T16:41:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-01T23:41:36","slug":"newsom-takes-aim-at-states-top-three-challenges-healthcare-housing-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/newsom-takes-aim-at-states-top-three-challenges-healthcare-housing-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom Takes Aim at State\u2019s Top Three Challenges: Healthcare, Housing, Homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Governor Gavin Newsom (Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Deck: In a briefing for Asian Pacific Islander media, the governor also warned the anti-immigrant threat is now expanding to the API community. <\/em><\/p>\n

By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services<\/p>\n

In a conference call May 28 with Asian Pacific Islander media, Gavin Newsom, five months into his term as governor of California, outlined aggressive strategies in current budget proposals to combat three of the state\u2019s biggest headaches: healthcare, housing, and homelessness.<\/p>\n

And in one of several overt challenges to current White House policies, he highlighted his recent pardoning of two Cambodian immigrants, Kang Hen and Hay Hov, thereby gutting the federal case for their immediate deportation.<\/p>\n

He also warned that the Trump administration\u2019s deportation focus was expanding beyond the Latino community that\u2019s at the heart of the border wall controversy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealthcare is front and center in the national discourse,\u201d he said, \u201cever since the vandalism of the Affordable Care Act,\u201d also known as Obamacare. And homelessness, growing by double-digit percentages up and down the state, according to the most recent accounting, released just last week, is \u201can out-of-control abomination, simply getting worse,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

Worse as in 43% increases in Alameda and Orange counties, and 64% in Bakersfield\u2019s Kern County, the governor noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to overpromise that we can turn this around overnight,\u201d he warned, but his proposals represent \u201cthe most robust homeless investment the state has ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, he said, the housing situation is \u201cdeeply complex. It\u2019s taken us decades to get to this point.\u201d The governor lambasted the state ranking 49th<\/sup>out of 50 when it comes to building new housing units (behind only Utah) last year and said, \u201cWe have got to get serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he\u2019s pressuring the most laggard communities, such as Huntington Beach, where no new housing was constructed, and generally using the \u201ccarrot and stick\u201d approach on 49 other municipalities that haven\u2019t done enough.<\/p>\n

The 77,000 new housing units built in the state last year, he said, is \u201cnot even close to where we need to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor said he\u2019s allocating $1.75 billion into various \u201chousing buckets\u201d — plans to incentivize new construction, for instance, via tax credits, loan subsidies and infrastructure grants to help investment, creating \u201copportunity zones\u201d and seeking lower voting threshold rules to streamline permitting, encouraging workforce housing along with low-income housing construction.<\/p>\n

And to slow that abominable growth in homelessness, Newsom had more than a billion dollars\u2019 worth of proposals, including $275 million to 13 counties and $275 million more to 13 cities with the most challenging homelessness circumstances. These would go to such things as rapid rehousing programs, hotel conversions, navigation centers, workforce training, and mental health programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you believe in universal health care, then you believe in covering everybody, regardless of immigration status,\u201d he said. His plan would extend coverage to 2.5 million undocumented Californians, including 463,000 members of the Asian Pacific Islander community, he said,<\/p>\n

In detailing his intentions, the governor argued that, in the long run, beyond the humanitarian or moral justifications for dedicating hundreds of millions to foster housing construction and homelessness prevention and re-establishing the health care individual mandate, the state will save money, too.<\/p>\n

For instance, by enrolling everyone in Medicare, he said, including undocumented immigrants, the state would realize savings on the most expensive health care it provides: emergency room care to those who have no insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already spending the money,\u201d he said. \u201cWe pay a fortune in the emergency room for the undocumented.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he envisions other cost-savings too.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most significant things we are doing in the budget,\u201d he said, is being able to save $400 million annually from the $13.5 billion spent on pharmaceutical drugs by leveraging the state\u2019s purchasing power and implementing bulk purchases.<\/p>\n

For another example of anticipated cost savings by expanding Medicare, Newsom pointed out how, subsequent to the elimination of the individual mandate, there was a 9% jump in insurance premiums. But not in Massachusetts, where the individual mandate is still in effect and worth about a 5% difference in premium costs, he said, citing Peter Lee, of Covered California.<\/p>\n

The Affordable Care Act\u2019s individual mandate requirement was removed as part of the GOP tax bill that passed in December 2017.<\/p>\n

Other benefits to California health care he\u2019s envisioning are significant boosts in Medi-Cal payments to physicians. Medi-Cal is California\u2019s Medicaid program for low-income residents.<\/p>\n

In response to a question from the media, Newsom confirmed that veterans would come in for considerable benefit through the housing and supportive services he\u2019s proposing.<\/p>\n

In response to another question, he praised state Attorney General Xavier Becerra and San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera for their support of \u201csanctuary\u201d status in their jurisdictions, reiterated his own long-standing support for such policies and expressed skepticism that those policies will ever cost the state federal dollars.<\/p>\n

Citing a recent court victory against Trump proposals to redirect state resources to what Newsom called the \u201cfake emergency\u201d border wall, Newsom also stated his intention to fight for immigration reform, hopefully in conjunction with other border-state governors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California Governor Gavin Newsom (Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images) Deck: In a briefing for Asian Pacific Islander media, the governor also warned the anti-immigrant threat is now expanding to the API community. By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services In a conference call May 28 with Asian Pacific Islander media, Gavin Newsom, five months into his term as…<\/p>\n

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