Latest news with #CoveredCalifornia
Newsweek
30-04-2025
- Health
- Newsweek
California Faces Probe After Sharing People's Health Data With LinkedIn
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. California's handling of sensitive health information is under scrutiny following a report that data entered by residents on the state's health insurance marketplace was shared with LinkedIn. Covered California, which runs the state's marketplace, shared sensitive personal data with LinkedIn, a subsidiary of Microsoft, through embedded tracking tools on the website, nonprofit news organization The Markup reported on Monday. Covered California confirmed the data transmission in a news release later that day, saying "some sensitive data was inadvertently collected by the tags, including first names, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, and other sensitive health information like pregnancy status." It added that all advertising-related tags on the website had been turned off as a "precautionary measure," and that it would review the extent of the data shared. Representative Kevin Kiley, the Democrat from California has called for an investigation. "This is incredibly disturbing," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Newsweek contacted Representative Kiley via social media and email, as well as the press offices of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and California Governor Gavin Newsom via email outside of regular working hours on Wednesday. Why It Matters Concerns over personal data have grown in recent months after it emerged the government's Department of Government Efficiencyworked to gain access to the Social Security Administration's data systems, which hold sensitive personal data about approximately 70 million Americans. California's sharing of sensitive data with LinkedIn will likely raise similar concerns about threats to Americans' privacy. File photo: the LinkedIn homepage. File photo: the LinkedIn homepage. Chris Radburn/Press Association via AP What To Know Trackers on which was created under the Affordable Care Act, captured users' answers to questions about blindness, pregnancy, high prescription use, gender identity and experiences with domestic abuse, The Markup reported. The data was then transmitted to LinkedIn using Insight Tag, which uses code to track how visitors interact with websites. Covered California said in a statement that it "leverages LinkedIn's advertising platform tools to understand consumer behavior;" however, LinkedIn notes on its website that Insight Tag "should not be installed on web pages that collect or contain Sensitive Data." The LinkedIn campaign trackers began in February 2024 and were removed "due to a marketing agency transition" in early April, Covered California told CalMatters. Covered California had more than 60 trackers on its site, compared to the average on other government sites of three, CalMatters reported. What People Are Saying Covered California said in a news release on Monday: "Covered California is reviewing its entire website and information security and privacy protocols to ensure that no analytics tools are impermissibly collecting or sharing sensitive consumer information. The LinkedIn Insight tags are no longer active and, as a precautionary measure, all active advertising-related tags across the website have been turned off. "Covered California is committed to safeguarding the confidential information and privacy of its consumers. The organization will share additional findings from this investigation as they become available." California Representative Kevin Kiley, wrote on X: "California's Obamacare website tracked users' personal health information—such as pregnancy and prescription drug use—and sent it to LinkedIn for a 'marketing campaign.' We are asking Secretary Kennedy to investigate for HIPAA violations." What Happens Next The Department of Health and Human Services has yet to respond publicly to Kiley's call for an investigation.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How one state sent residents' personal health data to LinkedIn
The website that lets Californians shop for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, has been sending sensitive data to LinkedIn, forensic testing by The Markup has revealed. As visitors filled out forms on the website, trackers on the same pages told LinkedIn their answers to questions about whether they were blind, pregnant, or used a high number of prescription medications. The trackers also monitored whether the visitors said they were transgender or possible victims of domestic abuse. Covered California, the organization that operates the website, removed the trackers as The Markup and CalMatters reported this article. The organization said they were removed "due to a marketing agency transition" in early April. In a statement, Kelly Donohue, a spokesperson for the agency, confirmed that data was sent to LinkedIn as part of an advertising campaign. Since being informed of the tracking, "all active advertising-related tags across our website have been turned off out of an abundance of caution," she added. "Covered California has initiated a review of our websites and information security and privacy protocols to ensure that no analytics tools are impermissibly sharing sensitive consumer information," Donohue said, adding that they would "share additional findings as they become available, taking any necessary steps to safeguard the security and privacy of consumer data." Visitors who filled out health information on the site may have had their data tracked for more than a year, according to Donohue, who said the LinkedIn campaign began in February 2024. The Markup observed the trackers directly in February and March of this year. It confirmed most ad trackers, including the Meta "pixel" tracker, as well as all third-party cookies, have been removed from the site as of April 21. Since 2014, more than 50 million Americans have signed up for health insurance through state exchanges like Covered California. They were set up under the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama 15 years ago. States can either operate their exchange websites in partnership with the federal government or independently, as California does. Covered California operates as an independent entity within the state government. Its board is appointed by the governor and Legislature. In March, Covered California announced that, after four years of increasing enrollment, a record of nearly 2 million people were covered by health insurance through the program. In all, the organization said, about one in six Californians were at one point enrolled through Covered California. Between 2014 and 2023, the uninsured rate fell from 17.2% to 6.4%, according to the organization, the largest drop of any state during that time period. This coincided with a series of eligibility expansions to Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program for lower-income households. Experts expressed alarm at the idea that those millions of people could have had sensitive health data sent to a private company without their knowledge or consent. Sara Geoghegan, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said it was "concerning and invasive" for a health insurance website to be sending data that was "wholly irrelevant" to the uses of a for-profit company like LinkedIn. "It's unfortunate," she said, "because people don't expect that their health information will be collected and used in this way." The Markup and CalMatters in recent months scanned for trackers on hundreds of California state and county government websites that offer services for undocumented immigrants using Blacklight, an automated tool developed by The Markup for auditing website trackers. The Markup found that Covered California had more than 60 trackers on its site. Out of more than 200 of the government sites, the average number of trackers on the sites was three. Covered California had dozens more than any other website we examined. On trackers from well-known social media firms like Meta collected information on visitor page views, while lesser-known analytics and media campaign companies like email marketing company LiveIntent also followed users across the site. But by far the most sensitive information was transmitted to LinkedIn. While some of the data sent to LinkedIn was relatively innocuous, such as what pages were visited, Covered California also sent the company detailed information when visitors selected doctors to see if they were covered by a plan, including their specialization. The site also told LinkedIn if someone searched for a specific hospital. In addition to demographic information including gender, the site also shared details with LinkedIn when visitors selected their ethnicity and marital status, and when they told how often they saw doctors for surgery or outpatient treatment. LinkedIn, like other large social media firms, offers a way for websites to easily transmit data on their visitors through a tracking tool that the sites can place on their pages. In LinkedIn's case, this tool is called the Insight Tag. By using the tag, businesses and other organizations can later target advertisements on LinkedIn to consumers that have already shown interest in their products or services. For an e-commerce site, a tracker on a page might be able to note when someone added a product to their cart, and the business can then send ads for that product to the same person on their social media feeds. A health care marketplace like Covered California might use the trackers to reach a group of people who might be interested in a reminder of a deadline for open health insurance enrollment, for example. In its statement, Covered California noted the usefulness of these tools, saying the organization "leverages LinkedIn's advertising platform tools to understand consumer behavior and deliver tailored messages to help them make informed decisions about their health care options." Trackers can also be valuable to the social media companies that offer them. In addition to driving ad sales, they provide an opportunity to gather information on visitors to websites other than their own. On its informational page about the Insight Tag, LinkedIn places the burden on websites that employ the tag not to use it in risky situations. The tag "should not be installed on web pages that collect or contain Sensitive Data," the page advises, including "pages offering specific health-related or financial services or products to consumers." LinkedIn spokesperson Brionna Ruff said in an emailed statement, "Our Ads Agreement and documentation expressly prohibit customers from installing the Insight Tag on web pages that collect or contain sensitive data, including pages offering health-related services. We don't allow advertisers to target ads based on sensitive data or categories." Collection of sensitive information by social media trackers has in previous instances led to removal of the trackers, lawsuits, and scrutiny by state and federal lawmakers. For example, after The Markup in 2022 revealed the Department of Education sent personal information to Facebook when students applied for college financial aid online, the department turned off the sharing, faced questions from two members of Congress, and was sued by two advocacy groups who sought more information about the sharing. Other stories in the same series about trackers, known as the Pixel Hunt, also led to changes and blowback, including a crackdown by the Federal Trade Commission on telehealth companies transmitting personal information to companies including Meta and Google without user consent and proposed class action lawsuits over information shared through trackers with drug stores, health providers, and tax prep companies. LinkedIn is already facing multiple proposed class-action lawsuits related to the collection of medical information. In October, three new lawsuits in California courts alleged that LinkedIn violated users' privacy by collecting information on medical appointment sites, including for a fertility clinic. Social media companies' tracking practices have underpinned the tremendous growth of the tech industry, but few web users are aware of how far the tracking goes. "This absolutely contradicts the expectation of the average consumer," Geoghegan said. In California, a law called the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act governs the privacy of medical information in the state. Under the act, consumers must give permission to some organizations before their medical information is disclosed to third parties. Companies have faced litigation under the law for using web tracking technologies, although those suits have not always been successful. Geoghegan said current protections like these don't go far enough in helping consumers protect their sensitive data. "This is an exact example of why we need better protections," she said of LinkedIn receiving the data. "This is sensitive health information that consumers expect to be protected and a lack of regulations is failing us." This story was produced by The Markup and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Covered California pushes for better healthcare as federal spending cuts loom
Faced with potential federal spending cuts that threaten health coverage and falling childhood vaccination rates, Monica Soni, the chief medical officer of Covered California, has a lot on her plate — and on her mind. California's Affordable Care Act health insurance exchange covers nearly 2 million residents and 89% of them receive federal subsidies that reduce their premiums. Many middle-income households got subsidies for the first time after Congress expanded them in 2021, which helped generate a boom in enrollment in ACA exchanges nationwide. From the original and enhanced subsidies, Covered California enrollees currently get $563 a month onaverage, lowering the average monthly out-of-pocket premium from $698 to $135, according to data from Covered California. The 2021 subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress renews them. If they lapse, enrollees would be on the hook to pay an average of $101 a month more for health insurance — not counting any premium hikes in 2026 and beyond. And those middle-income earners who did not qualify for subsidies before would lose all financial assistance — $384 a month, on average — which Soni fears could prompt them to drop out. At the same time, vaccination rates for children 2 and under declined among 7 of the 10 Covered California health plans subject to its new quality-of-care requirements. Soni, a Los Angeles native who came to Covered California in May 2023, oversees that program, in which health plans must meet performance targets on blood pressure control, diabetes management, colorectal cancer screening and childhood vaccinations — or pay a financial penalty. Lack of access to such key aspects of care disproportionately affects underserved communities, making Covered California's effort one of health equity as well. Soni, a Harvard-trained primary care doctor who sees patients one day a week at an urgent care clinic in Los Angeles County's public safety net health system, is familiar with the challenges those communities face. Covered California reported last November that its health plans improved on three of the four measures in the first year of the program. But childhood immunizations for those under 2 declined by 4%. The decline is in line with a national trend, which Soni attributed to postpandemic mistrust of vaccines and 'more skepticism of the entire medical industry.' Most parents have heard at least one untrue statement about measles or the vaccine for it, and many don't know what to believe, according to an April KFF poll. Health plans improved on the other three measures, but not enough to avoid penalties, which yielded $15 million. The exchange is using that money to fund another effort Soni manages, which helps 6,900 Covered California households buy groceries and contributes to more than 250 savings accounts for children who get routine checkups and vaccines. Some of the penalty money will also be used to support primary care practices around California. In addition to her bifurcated professional duties, Soni is the mother of two children, ages 4 and 7. KFF Health News senior correspondent Bernard J. Wolfson spoke with Soni about the impact of possible federal cuts and the exchange's initiative to improve care for its enrollees. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q: Covered California has record enrollment of nearly 2 million, boosted by the expanded federal subsidies passed under the Biden administration, which end after this year. What if Congress does not renew them? A: Our estimates are that it will approach 400,000 Californians who would drop coverage hear every day from our folks that they're really living on the margins. Until they got some of those subsidies, they could not afford coverage. As a primary care doctor, I am the one to treat folks who show up with preventable cancers because they were too afraid to think about what their out-of-pocket costs would be. I don't want to go back to those days. Q: Congress is considering billions in cuts to Medicaid. How would that affect Covered California and the state's population more broadly, given that more than 1 in 3 Californians are on Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid? A: Those are our neighbors, our friends. Those are the people working in the restaurants we eat at. Earlier cancer screenings, better chronic disease control, lower maternal mortality, more substance use disorder treatment: We know that Medicaid saves lives. We know it helps people live longer and better. As a physician, I would be hard-pressed to argue for rolling back anything that saves lives. It would be very distressing to watch that come to California. Q: Why did Covered California undertake the Quality Transformation Initiative? A: We were incredibly successful at covering nearly 2 million, but frankly we didn't see improvements in quality, and we continue to see gaps for certain populations in terms of outcomes. So, I think the question became much more imperative: Are we getting our money's worth out of this coverage? Are we making sure people are living longer and better, and if not, how do we up the ante to make sure they are? Q: There's a penalty for not meeting the targets, but no bonuses for meeting them: You meet the goals or else, right? A: We don't say it like that, but that is true. And we didn't make it complicated. It's only four measures. It's things that as a primary care doctor I know are important, that I take care of when I see people in mypractice. We said get to the 66th percentile on these four measures, and there's no dollars that you have to pay. If you don't, then we collect those funds. Q: And you use the penalty money to fund the grocery assistance and child savings accounts. A: That's exactly right. We had this opportunity to think about what would we use these dollars for and how we actually make a difference in people's lives. So, we cold-called hundreds of people, we sent surveys out to thousands of folks, and what we heard overwhelmingly was how expensive it is to live in California; that folks are making trade-offs between food and transportation, between child care and food — just impossible decisions. Q: You will put up to $1,000 a child into those savings accounts, right? A: That's right. It's tied to doing those healthy behaviors, going to child well visits and getting recommended vaccines. We looked at the literature, and once you get to even just $500 in an account, the likelihood of a kid going to a two- or four-year school increases significantly. It's actually because they're hopeful about their future, and it changes their path of upward mobility, which we know changes their health outcome. Q: Given the rise in vaccine skepticism, are you worried that the recent measles outbreak could grow? A: I am very concerned about it. I was actually reading some posts from a physician colleague who trained decades earlier and was talking about all the diseases that my generation of physicians have never seen. We don't actually know how to diagnose and take care of a number of infectious diseases because they mostly have been eradicated or outbreaks have been really contained. So, I feel worried. I've been brushing off my old textbooks. Wolfson writes for KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism. Sign up for our Wide Shot newsletter to get the latest entertainment business news, analysis and insights. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
26-04-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Covered California pushes for better healthcare as federal spending cuts loom
Faced with potential federal spending cuts that threaten health coverage and falling childhood vaccination rates, Monica Soni, the chief medical officer of Covered California, has a lot on her plate — and on her mind. California's Affordable Care Act health insurance exchange covers nearly 2 million residents and 89% of them receive federal subsidies that reduce their premiums. Many middle-income households got subsidies for the first time after Congress expanded them in 2021, which helped generate a boom in enrollment in ACA exchanges nationwide. From the original and enhanced subsidies, Covered California enrollees currently get $563 a month onaverage, lowering the average monthly out-of-pocket premium from $698 to $135, according to data from Covered California. The 2021 subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress renews them. If they lapse, enrollees would be on the hook to pay an average of $101 a month more for health insurance — not counting any premium hikes in 2026 and beyond. And those middle-income earners who did not qualify for subsidies before would lose all financial assistance — $384 a month, on average — which Soni fears could prompt them to drop out. At the same time, vaccination rates for children 2 and under declined among 7 of the 10 Covered California health plans subject to its new quality-of-care requirements. Soni, a Los Angeles native who came to Covered California in May 2023, oversees that program, in which health plans must meet performance targets on blood pressure control, diabetes management, colorectal cancer screening and childhood vaccinations — or pay a financial penalty. Lack of access to such key aspects of care disproportionately affects underserved communities, making Covered California's effort one of health equity as well. Soni, a Harvard-trained primary care doctor who sees patients one day a week at an urgent care clinic in Los Angeles County's public safety net health system, is familiar with the challenges those communities face. Covered California reported last November that its health plans improved on three of the four measures in the first year of the program. But childhood immunizations for those under 2 declined by 4%. The decline is in line with a national trend, which Soni attributed to postpandemic mistrust of vaccines and 'more skepticism of the entire medical industry.' Most parents have heard at least one untrue statement about measles or the vaccine for it, and many don't know what to believe, according to an April KFF poll. Health plans improved on the other three measures, but not enough to avoid penalties, which yielded $15 million. The exchange is using that money to fund another effort Soni manages, which helps 6,900 Covered California households buy groceries and contributes to more than 250 savings accounts for children who get routine checkups and vaccines. Some of the penalty money will also be used to support primary care practices around California. In addition to her bifurcated professional duties, Soni is the mother of two children, ages 4 and 7. KFF Health News senior correspondent Bernard J. Wolfson spoke with Soni about the impact of possible federal cuts and the exchange's initiative to improve care for its enrollees. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q: Covered California has record enrollment of nearly 2 million, boosted by the expanded federal subsidies passed under the Biden administration, which end after this year. What if Congress does not renew them? A: Our estimates are that it will approach 400,000 Californians who would drop coverage hear every day from our folks that they're really living on the margins. Until they got some of those subsidies, they could not afford coverage. As a primary care doctor, I am the one to treat folks who show up with preventable cancers because they were too afraid to think about what their out-of-pocket costs would be. I don't want to go back to those days. Q: Congress is considering billions in cuts to Medicaid. How would that affect Covered California and the state's population more broadly, given that more than 1 in 3 Californians are on Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid? A: Those are our neighbors, our friends. Those are the people working in the restaurants we eat at. Earlier cancer screenings, better chronic disease control, lower maternal mortality, more substance use disorder treatment: We know that Medicaid saves lives. We know it helps people live longer and better. As a physician, I would be hard-pressed to argue for rolling back anything that saves lives. It would be very distressing to watch that come to California. Q: Why did Covered California undertake the Quality Transformation Initiative? A: We were incredibly successful at covering nearly 2 million, but frankly we didn't see improvements in quality, and we continue to see gaps for certain populations in terms of outcomes. So, I think the question became much more imperative: Are we getting our money's worth out of this coverage? Are we making sure people are living longer and better, and if not, how do we up the ante to make sure they are? Q: There's a penalty for not meeting the targets, but no bonuses for meeting them: You meet the goals or else, right? A: We don't say it like that, but that is true. And we didn't make it complicated. It's only four measures. It's things that as a primary care doctor I know are important, that I take care of when I see people in mypractice. We said get to the 66th percentile on these four measures, and there's no dollars that you have to pay. If you don't, then we collect those funds. Q: And you use the penalty money to fund the grocery assistance and child savings accounts. A: That's exactly right. We had this opportunity to think about what would we use these dollars for and how we actually make a difference in people's lives. So, we cold-called hundreds of people, we sent surveys out to thousands of folks, and what we heard overwhelmingly was how expensive it is to live in California; that folks are making trade-offs between food and transportation, between child care and food — just impossible decisions. Q: You will put up to $1,000 a child into those savings accounts, right? A: That's right. It's tied to doing those healthy behaviors, going to child well visits and getting recommended vaccines. We looked at the literature, and once you get to even just $500 in an account, the likelihood of a kid going to a two- or four-year school increases significantly. It's actually because they're hopeful about their future, and it changes their path of upward mobility, which we know changes their health outcome. Q: Given the rise in vaccine skepticism, are you worried that the recent measles outbreak could grow? A: I am very concerned about it. I was actually reading some posts from a physician colleague who trained decades earlier and was talking about all the diseases that my generation of physicians have never seen. We don't actually know how to diagnose and take care of a number of infectious diseases because they mostly have been eradicated or outbreaks have been really contained. So, I feel worried. I've been brushing off my old textbooks. Wolfson writes for KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Californians see undocumented immigrants as essential to economy, poll finds
As President Trump launches a crackdown on unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., a new survey finds that a majority of California voters support providing social services for all low-income residents in the state, regardless of immigration status. In contrast to the anti-immigrant rhetoric emanating from the White House, the survey of 800 California voters portrays a populace that values the contributions of immigrants, regardless of legal status, and believes their well-being is intertwined with a well-functioning state. Californians 'understand what a vital role immigrants play in ensuring that we all have a quality of life, and they want to make sure the basic fundamental services like access to healthcare get maintained for everyone,' said Miguel Santana, president and executive officer of the California Community Foundation, which commissioned the survey in partnership with other foundations across the state. The poll found that more than two-thirds of respondents support allowing all state residents to purchase health insurance through Covered California, regardless of immigration status. Currently, unauthorized immigrants are not eligible to buy a plan through the state's health insurance marketplace. Nearly two-thirds of respondents, 64%, support offering food assistance to all eligible low-income families, regardless of the parents' immigration status. Currently, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for California's food stamp program, but they can apply for assistance on behalf of their U.S.-born children. The survey also found that 57% of respondents support continuing to allow all eligible low-income residents to access medical care through Medi-Cal, the state's public health insurance program for the poor, regardless of their immigration status. Last year, California became the first state in the nation to offer health insurance to all low-income undocumented immigrants. That expansion is being blamed, in part, for Medi-Cal costs ballooning well above the original budget estimate. As part of the nonpartisan survey, San Francisco-based David Binder Research interviewed voters by cellphone, landline and online, in English and Spanish, between March 19 and 24. Of the respondents, 47% identified as Democrats and 28% identified as Republicans, generally reflecting the California electorate. The research revealed that even moderate and swing voters in California see undocumented immigrants as essential to the economy, and are worried about the economic fallout from Trump's pledge to carry out mass deportations, said pollster David Binder. Participants expressed concerns that raids targeting farmworkers will drive up grocery prices and that wide-scale deportations will decimate small businesses and make it more expensive to build houses. 'They're worried that mass deportations are going to cause disruptions in their daily routine,' said Binder, whose research firm also does polling for Democratic candidates. 'They'll say, 'I'm really nervous about this, because it may end up costing me and my family.'' That sentiment underscores a broader truth in the Golden State: Immigrants are critical to the economy in California, where about 10.6 million people — or 27% of all residents — were foreign-born as of 2023. That's the highest share of any state and more than double the share in the rest of the country, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. About 1.8 million immigrants living in California — roughly 17% — were undocumented in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. Unauthorized immigrants accounted for an estimated 7% of the state's workforce in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center, with some sectors deeply reliant on this workforce. At least half of the estimated 255,700 farmworkers in California are undocumented, according to UC Merced Research. The California survey struck a different tone than several national polls that have found the American public is generally supportive of the Trump administration's get-tough immigration policies. A March CBS News/YouGov poll, for example, found 58% of Americans approve of the administration's program to deport immigrants who are in the country without authorization. The California survey, in contrast, found that about 6 in 10 voters support ensuring all Californians have access to due process, regardless of whether that person is undocumented or has criminal convictions. This could indicate that the Trump administration's efforts to frame its deportation strategy as a public safety initiative are "falling flat" with California voters, according to the research summary. 'Instead of mass deportations, Californians want to further integrate immigrants, regardless of their legal status, into the fabric of our state,' said Tom Wong, director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at UC San Diego, who was not involved in the survey. Masih Fouladi, executive director of the immigrant rights group California Immigrant Policy Center, said the survey affirms efforts that advocates are pushing in Sacramento, including increased funding for immigrant legal services and protecting access to healthcare. 'It shows that the people in California still believe in a California for all,' said Fouladi, who wasn't involved in the polling. This article is part of The Times' equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California's economic divide. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
