Californians struggle with health care costs + Bill blocks banks from dealing with gun industry

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

SURVEY FINDS CALIFORNIANS ARE LARGELY SKIPPING, POSTPONING MEDICAL CARE

More than half of Californians (52%) reported skipping or postponing some form of health care in the last 12 months, with half of those who had done so saying their health worsened as a result.

That’s the finding of a new survey shared by the California Health Care Foundation and NORC at the University of Chicago.

The poll of 1,739 California adults, conducted from Sept. 30 to Nov. 1 last year, found that more than a quarter (27%) said that they or someone they know has struggled to pay a medical bill within the last year. For lower income Californians, that number rises to 44%.

Meanwhile, 65% of Californians say they are worried about unexpected medical bills and out-of-pocket health care costs, with more than a third (36%) saying they have some kind of medical debt. Again, that number rises (to 52%) among people with lower incomes. Of those with medical debt, 19% say that it’s more than $5,000.

Kristof Stremikis, of the California Health Care Foundation, said in a statement that the high cost of health care is taking a toll on millions of Californians.

“Californians are also very concerned about a variety of other health issues — including homelessness and mental health, preparing public health departments for the next emergency, and ensuring every community has enough health care workers. But in poll after poll, what we see most consistently is that Californians want and need the rising cost of care to be contained,” Stremikis said.

You can read the survey for yourself here.

MIN BILL SEEKS TO BAN BANKS FROM DEALING WITH GUN INDUSTRY

We’re more than halfway through February, and there have been 72 mass shootings in America this year so far, including six where four or more people were killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Tuesday marked the five-year anniversary of the mass shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. On Monday, gun violence at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, left three dead and five injured.

California State Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, introduced a bill Thursday, SB 637, that would require that the state cut off business with any bank or lender with customers in the firearms industry.

“Michigan State. Half Moon Bay. Monterey Park. And on and on and on. There is no place in America that is safe from the epidemic of gun violence,” Min said in a statement.

Min said that his bill would “force Wall Street to make a choice between the blood money offered by the gun industry and doing business with the State of California.”

Min has been an outspoken critic of the gun industry in the Legislature, and in 2022 he authored a bill that banned California county fairgrounds from hosting gun shows on their premises.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Speaker Rendon never should have made this appointment. Assemblywoman Bonta never should have accepted it. It’s as simple as that. And to continue to dig in and defend this decision, despite the ethical questions that have been raised, is unthinkable.”

- California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson, discussing the controversy around Assemblywoman Mia Bonta’s role as chair of the subcommittee that oversees the budget for the Justice Department, which is led by her husband, Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Best of The Bee:

• California lawmakers will once again introduce legislation that could ban imposing forced labor on inmates. This effort to amend state’s Constitution was rejected last year when lawmakers failed to pass it through the Assembly, via Marcus D. Smith.

• Tax season is well under way and Californians have seen their fair share of confusion waiting on guidance from tax officials — and it’s not over yet, via Brianna Taylor.

• It’s the little things — going to the grocery store, cleaning the house, finishing yardwork — that Luke Scarmazzo is grateful for after being imprisoned for something that very likely wouldn’t land him there now. Scarmazzo recently was released from federal prison after almost 15 years for operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Modesto — something that is, and was, legal in California but remains a violation of federal law, via Gillian Brassil.