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The Bay Area Current featured case managers Meg Johnson and Sean Jordan, and street crisis response specialist Robin Harmon in an article about 56 workers in the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team who voted to unionize with NUHW in an election held August 20. In addition to improved benefits, these workers are ready to fight for more power to shape decisions about the services they provide to San Francisco’s unhoused residents.
NUHW President Emeritus Sal Rosselli was quoted in a Healthcare-Brew story about how mental health workers at Kaiser Permanente are opposing a policy that pauses gender-affirming surgeries for patients under 19. Kaiser announced the pause following pressure from the Trump administration to stop trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care. Rosselli said NUHW “has a long track record of standing up for the rights of patients to get the care they need and countering misinformation that could lead to patients not getting appropriate care.”
Top Class Actions, a news site that publishes primarily for class action lawyers, highlighted the fact that Kaiser is now informing members of potential reimbursements for out-of-pocket mental health care they received dating back to 2021. The reimbursements are a requirement under the 2023 Settlement Agreement between Kaiser and the California Department of Managed Health Care.
The recent strike by NUHW members at East Bay Hospice generated lots of local news coverage, including stories by KRON-4, KPIX-5, NBC-11, CBS News Radio, KIQI, SFGate, The Bay Area Current, KPFA’s Work Week and KQED.
Kaiser Permanente reported a net income of $3.3 billion in the second quarter of 2025 that ended on June 30, up from $2.1 billion during the same period last year. Becker’s Hospital Review noted that the company also reported capital spending of $1.1 billion in the quarter, up from $889 million during the same period last year. Kaiser cited unexpected expenses in Southern California, due to our nearly seven-month strike.
Californians who get their health insurance through the state’s marketplace will see premiums increase by an average of 10.3% next year. CalMatters reported this is the first double-digit rate increase since 2018, which officials blame on rising health care costs, federal financial assistance that expires at the end of the year, and policy-driven market uncertainty. Partly to blame is President Donald Trump’s signature spending and tax reform bill — the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — which left out funding for enhanced premium tax credits used by more than 90% of Affordable Care Act enrollees nationwide.
A study published in Health Affairs found that between 2009 and 2023, the wage gap between CEOs and average employees at nonprofit hospitals widened. During those years, average CEO pay rose by 27.5% (from $814,000 in 2009 to $1.04 million in 2023) and top executive pay by 23.1%, while the average wage for hospital employees rose just 9.8%. Becker’s Hospital Review reported the researchers also found a trend toward the “financialization” of nonprofit health systems, in which they adopt business practices and governance philosophies resembling those of publicly traded corporations and financial firms.
