Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vocally pushed a fight against chronic health issues like obesity and heart disease.

Yet, because of federal cuts, most county health departments will shut down nutrition programs focused on teaching low-income families how to stretch their food stamp dollars and cook healthier food.

As Kristen Hwang reports, Kern County eliminated a program teaching residents how to lead healthier lives through nutrition and fitness classes, citing the loss of $12.5 million in federal public health funding.

Kern has the highest rate of diabetes-related deaths in the state. More than 3 out of every 4 adults there are overweight or obese, according to state data.

• Selena Peña, who worked on Kern’s nutrition program: “Our health should be a priority. We should want to combat the things that make us unhealthy: Diseases, tobacco, unhealthy foods. It’s discouraging when the government doesn’t want to care for the health of the public.”

Across the state, county health and human services departments have made significant reductions to basic health programs in response to cuts and freezes from Trump initiatives such as DOGE and the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill. 

For example:

• Long Beach has lost nearly $4 million in federal grants with the largest cut affecting its HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention program.

• Orange County closed its clinics for children, emergency dental and family planning to deal with $13.7 million in cuts over the next two years. In October, the county will lose an additional $4 million to combat obesity and food insecurity.

• LA County, which operates four public hospitals, mostly for Medicaid patients, projects it will have a $1.85 billion annual deficit by 2028, largely due to Medicaid cuts.

Experts worry the impacts will be long-lasting.

Arthur Reingold, professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley: These policies “will reverberate for the rest of this administration if not well beyond that.

The FAIR Plan is under the microscope right now as complaints mount about its denial of smoke claims related to the January fires in LA. And lawmakers are trying to find ways to reform it 

The state Department of Insurance filed legal action against the plan, which is mandated by law to sell policies to homeowners who can’t get them from other insurance companies, accusing it of denying more than 200 smoke-damage claims and violating hundreds of consumer-protection laws.

Levi Sumagaysay and Nadia Lathan report that state lawmakers approved three bills aimed at improving the FAIR Plan, including one that would add the state's two top lawmakers to its governing committee (although they wouldn’t be voting members, dulling the potential for change a bit). 

Some important context from Levi and Nadia: 

The FAIR Plan, which is an alliance of insurers that do business in the state, has grown to more than 610,000 policies as of June, a 154% increase since September 2021. It has become one of the largest insurers in California as other insurance companies have canceled or stopped issuing new policies here, citing growing wildfire risk.

Find out if the number of applicants rose or fell in the face of the federal crackdown on immigration.

California Voices

CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: California’s high poverty rate is a civic embarrassment. Legislative leaders promised to tackle the high cost of living this session. Did they do enough?

With the politics around gas taking center stage at the end of the legislative session, we have two different views on affordability: 

• Deborah Sivas, a Stanford University environmental lawyer, says that, as the state produces less oil, there is less need for in-state refining. “That transition presents an opportunity,” she writes. “Many refineries sit on valuable land that could be repurposed for more sustainable uses.”  

• Michael Mische, a USC business professor, says the agreement between Newsom and legislative leaders to increase in-state oil drilling is a good start but also a piecemeal approach to a larger problem. He offers a variety of ideas to potentially increase fuel and price security for Californians.