Capitol Alert

Is California recession ready? + Defending Roe v. Wade + Medical malpractice initiative

By Hannah Wiley

Happy Wednesday readers! Slow news day yesterday, huh?

First up, McClatchy’s Washington bureau went into overdrive yesterday digging into what Sen. Kamala Harris’ departure from the 2020 race means for her party and her rivals. Check out these pieces on her future as a national candidate, the scramble for her donors and the suddenly all-white field of Democratic candidates.

SOME FORESHADOWING

“Sometime — and according to many forecasters, sometime soon — the nation and the state will go through a recession.”

Not the cheeriest of financial analyses for the Golden State, but it’s one that the Public Policy Institute of California laid out in a Tuesday report peeking into the next economic downturn and how it could affect the state’s “safety net” programs.

But the more grim perspective contrasts with what the institute described as California’s current “unusually bright” economy with “historically high levels” of fiscal prosperity and low unemployment rates. That sets California up for a better defense when the state experiences a negative turn in finances.

In its report, the institute reflected on the Great Recession and how lessons learned from that painful period can help inform California lawmakers during the financial slowdown.

  • According to the institute, the rate of poor Californians during the Great Recession grew from 12.2 percent to 16.6 percent.
  • The state also slashed $1.9 billion in funding from 2008 to 2012 from large safety net programs.

  • Despite an uptick in revenue following the recession’s turnaround, poverty rates for years afterward “remained elevated,” the authors wrote, underscoring a need to plan ahead for the greater economic cycle rather than the immediate outlook.

  • Between 500,000 and 1.2 million more Californians are likely to dip into poverty during a recession.
  • Ensuring Medi-Cal, which now covers a greater number of people than during the last economic downturn, stays viable and maintains its “critical role” will be tough.

  • One important “unknown?” It’s unclear, given the political climate, whether California will have a friend or foe in the White House during the next recession, and whether its residents can expect any federal assistance should they find their wallets a bit emptier than their pocketbooks of today.

  • Because health and social services “account for nearly half of all expenditures,” they’re also more likely to be on the chopping block. That means Medi-Cal, CalWORKs, Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payment and CalEITC, what the institute described as valuable programs, will have to be monitored and their access protected during the next recession.

If the economic fortunetelling seems a bit grim, the institute leaves readers on a positive note: “California has one tool in its kitbag that was not there a decade ago,” the authors concluded. “More than $20 billion in reserves set aside to provide a cushion in a budget crisis.”

ABORTION BATTLE

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra signed onto an amicus brief on Tuesday with a coalition of attorneys general who are challenging a Louisiana law that limits a doctor’s ability to perform an abortion.

Under the Louisiana restriction, women cannot obtain the procedure unless from a doctor who has admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

California and the nearly two dozen other states are supporting the argument that the legislation violates Roe v. Wade, the Suprem Court case that grants abortion rights to women seeking the procedure. States can still limit access to abortions, and they have in recent years more aggressively under President Donald Trump’s administration.

“This law is yet another attempt to trample on women’s reproductive rights,” Becerra said in a press statement. “This law creates barriers for licensed medical providers to perform abortion services, and unlawfully jeopardizes women’s access to care. We will continue to fight against laws that harm women’s health and restrict their rights.”

Supporters for the regulation say that it will make the procedure safer by making sure doctors can send patients to a nearby hospital should there be complications during the abortion. Opponents of the restriction say that the law effectively eliminates any path to an abortion for women in Louisiana and violates a woman’s constitutional right.

The Supreme Court in October agreed to hear a challenge to the law.

INJURED PATIENTS

A ballot initiative to adjust the cap on medical malpractice payouts was cleared for circulation on Tuesday, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.

The so-called “Fairness for Injured Patients Act,” backed by the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, challenges a nearly 45-year-old law that limits how much family members of and victims themselves can be compensated when medical malpractice results in injury or death. The number is currently capped at $250,000.

The ballot initiative would instead adjust the limit for inflation and would pave the way for juries and judges to deem whether the cap is appropriate.

“Since 1975, the maximum compensation any patient-victim is entitled to for disfigurement, permanent damage to quality of life, physical impairment, disability, pain, loss of a limb, blindness, and other quality of life damages is $250,000,” the initiative reads. “Brain-damaged babies and children with spastic quadriplegia and cerebral palsy caused by medical negligence are limited to $250,000 as maximum quality of life compensation by this 1975 legislative cap despite the fact that they will never be able to walk, talk, eat, or live any facet of a normal human life.”

Proponents supporting the act are required to collect 623,212 signatures from registered voters in order for the initiative to appear on the November 2020 ballot. They have until June 1 to do so.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign...But I want to be clear with you: I am still very much in this fight.”

- Kamala Harris, in a Tuesday Medium post announcing a suspension of her presidential candidacy.

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