S Kimberly Belshe

The argument that Medi-Cal is being abused by loopholes to allow rich people to receive convalescent care misses the point (July 17). Lots of reasonable people believe that catastrophic illnesses, including convalescent care, should be covered by the government, so that a family should not have to become destitute to pay for such care. When Congress adopted this philosophy a few years ago, it could have provided convalescent care coverage under Medicare, but instead it did so under the Medicaid program (known as Medi-Cal in California)

Some California television stations, including KABC in Los Angeles, have dropped a state-funded anti-smoking ad after being threatened with a libel action by the chairman of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.--one of four top tobacco industry executives shown testifying before Congress that nicotine is not addictive. In a letter to S. Kimberly Belshe, director of the state Department of Health Services, which paid for the commercial, lawyers for R.J. Reynolds Chairman James W.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger certainly got my attention last week when he lectured all Californians -- but mainly reporters -- about the importance of forcing the presidential candidates to be specific on issues. Here was a governor, after all, who was deliberately vague when he ran for reelection. And he was especially closemouthed about healthcare. Schwarzenegger merely indicated that insuring everybody would be his top priority this year.

Federal regulators have told Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center that it will have one last chance to prove it has fixed lapses in care that repeatedly led to patient deaths. An unannounced top-to-bottom inspection will be held within 90 days -- months later than had been expected, the regulators said this week. If the long-troubled public hospital fails any portion, it stands to lose all of its federal funding.

Portraying their initiative as an anti-smoking measure, the tobacco industry is airing radio spots in which a woman identifying herself as a school vice principal claims that Proposition 188 will keep children away from cigarettes. But California's top health official, and other critics of the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot, call the ad one more ruse to sell the initiative to California voters.

Molina Medical Centers, a $90-million company battling allegations that it has not complied with federal law, is considering a merger or affiliation with another HMO in a bid to retain its status as a full-service Medi-Cal contractor, a spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

State leaders on Tuesday put off until next year highly controversial plans to move 554,000 elderly, blind and disabled Medi-Cal beneficiaries into managed care, costing California $90 million in federal incentives. The decision was part of an overall agreement about how to divvy up $18 billion in new federal funding over the next five years in a way that would ensure no hospital loses money. The Legislature is expected to approve the deal by the end of this week.

Six staff members at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital -- including a nurse and two nursing assistants -- saw or walked past a dying woman writhing on the floor of the emergency room lobby last month but did not help her, according to a report made public Friday. Their discipline: a letter outlining how they should behave in the future.

Even as his battle with Democrats and their union supporters continues, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing to adopt some of his opponents' most important issues as his own next year, when he will be campaigning for reelection.

Health care providers in California are watching anxiously as President Clinton and Congress battle over the future of Medicare and Medicaid, a fight that could dictate the direction of health care programs in the state for years to come.