Sacramento, CA — The state Senate wants to create a Department of Public Health to help prepare California to deal with a major epidemic or terrorist attack.
Senators voted 22 to 12 Thursday to send the Assembly a bill by Senator Deborah Ortiz of Sacramento that would split the new department off from the Department of Health Services and require the governor to appoint a physician to head it.
Bill supporters say that public health programs are overshadowed now by the Department of Health Services´ administration of Medi-Cal, the state´s health care program for the poor.
This post was last modified on 01/31/2009 1:52 pm