The Governor and Assembly Speaker have emerged from negotiations with a healthcare plan that needs to be sent back for major reconstructive surgery. The plan has some very good elements – such as preventing insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, a long-overdue expansion of children’s healthcare coverage and, potentially, the creation of the largest purchasing pool in the health insurance market outside of the federal government. But the proposal has major flaws that must be fixed before it has a chance of final approval by California voters. Read the full story on Daily Kos. Read more »

By Heather Knight
SF Chronicle

San Francisco's unique foray into universal health care has proved more popular than anticipated, enrolling its 1,000th participant last week - weeks before public health officials expected to hit the milestone.

Coping with the overwhelming number of people wanting to learn more about the program - called Healthy San Francisco - has been the only major hurdle for the health department since the program started July 2, according to Dr. Mitch Katz, the city's public health chief.

"That's the kind of problem we want to have," he said Tuesday. Read more »