Articles by Adrienne Verrilli

California’s Dream Act took a step forward when Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law AB 130, a portion of the Dream Act that allows children of undocumented immigrants to access privately-funded scholarships in order to attend California universities. This means that undocumented students are now are eligible to apply for scholarships which they have long been denied access to.  The law will take effect January 1, 2012.  The bill was sponsored by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-LA). AB 130...

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report this week recommending that birth control as well as other preventive health care services for women be covered at basically no cost under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  The recommendations were made to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), the agency charged with determining whether women’s health care services are considered preventive care. The report states: “The birth control methods, services and education should be availa...

For those looking for a silver bullet to fight obesity, you will have to keep looking.  A study released by the University of North Carolina found that among people living in “food deserts,” the availability of grocery stores does little to improve eating habits. “Food deserts” are considered geographic areas with easy access to fast food and few or no grocery stores. The study found that in "food deserts", there was an association between the availability of fast food and its consumption.  How...

In a landmark move by the California legislature, a bill passed the Assembly that requires the state to include the contributions of the LGBT community in the public school’s social studies curriculum.  Specifically, SB 48 would amend the education code to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as well as people with disabilities to the list of people that the public schools must include in the state’s curriculum.  The bill also prohibits materials that reflect adversely on the LG...

Hoping to encourage seniors to take advantage of a little-known, but enormous benefit available due to the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. health care reform), the Department of Health and Human Services announced this week the launch of a campaign that seeks to raise awareness of Medicare's offer of no-cost preventive care. As of January 1, 2011, seniors enrolled in Medicare and Medicare Advantage can receive annual wellness exams, vaccines and cancer screenings without paying a copay or having the...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California can continue to offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants at the state’s public universities. Specifically, the Court refused to hear a challenge to legislation (AB 540) enacted in 2001 that allows undocumented students who graduate from California high schools to attend the state’s community colleges, Cal State or University of California, at the same tuition rate as in-state resident students. AB 540 also requires students to attend a Califo...

Blue Shield of California announced that it intends to return $167 million to its individual policyholders, and it plans to return money each year going forward. More specifically Blue Shield will give a 30% credit on one monthly bill this year  – a move that is expected to save an individual on average $80 and a family of four $250.  The insurance giant also announced that it will continue to return money to its policyholders every year that its profits exceed 2 percent – the first insurance co...

To help school districts deal with years of massive spending cuts in education, in 2009, the state legislature temporarily de-regulated $4.5 billion in funds formerly earmarked for 40 programs that school districts had been required to fund, such as adult education, classes for gifted children and training for blue collar fields like carpentry. What two separate studies have found is that schools districts shifted those dollars from adult programs into their general funds and have invested more ...

While California’s budget woes have dominated the headlines, the California Universal Health Care Act – Senate Bill 810 – was introduced by California State Democrats, seeking to create a single-payer health care system. Led by State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), if enacted, SB 810 would replace the federal health care system signed into law just 14 months ago. SB 810 creates a public-private partnership to provide every state resident with medical, dental, vision, hospitalization and pr...