The doctor who created Gavin Newsom’s response to COVID is stepping down

Dr. Mark Ghaly, who led California’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak as a top adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom is resigning from his position as secretary of Health and Human Services, the governor’s office announced today.

Ghaly has been a consistent face in the Newsom administration since 2019, when the pediatrician joined the governor’s cabinet. Many Californians may recognize the critical doctor as he delivers the latest updates on COVID-19, either from the stage or from his desk with colorful pictures of his children in the background.

While some in the public criticized Newsom’s pandemic laws as excessive, Ghaly was often responsible for explaining the rationale and science behind the government’s decisions. He also offered the governor a COVID vaccine to be announced when guns are available.

“We went through a lot. I think we have achieved a lot,” Ghaly said at a press conference. “Leaving public service is not really leaving public service. I hope I will continue to have opportunities to present myself in many places and push for strong goals that uplift as many vulnerable citizens as possible. possible.”

Newsom said at the event that Ghaly is leaving the agency to “focus more on himself and his children than on 40 million Americans.” Newsom called Ghaly “the most revolutionary leader in the healthcare space” in the US in recent years.

“His steadfast leadership of California’s state-of-the-art response to this epidemic has saved countless lives and laid the foundation for our state’s recovery,” Newsom said in a statement.

Ghaly will remain in his post until the end of the month. Newsom nominated Kim Johnson, who currently heads the California Department of Human Services, as the state’s new secretary of Health and Human Services. Johnson will begin his new role on Oct. 1.

Focus on health care access and cost

As the state’s top health officer, Ghaly guided every health conversation in the district. He served as chairman of the board of the state’s health insurance marketplace, Covered California; he chaired a new board charged with lowering health care costs, and chaired the Healthy For All Commission, a panel of experts tasked with examining ways to move California to a safer place for all citizens.

“That doesn’t happen without a center of gravity that allows things to adapt to change,” said Dr. Sandra Hernandez, president of the California Health Care Foundation, who has served with Ghaly on several health commissions, including the state’s affordability board. Covered by California.

Advocates and community groups have worked for decades on many of the health care reforms that occurred during Ghaly’s administration, including a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the federal insurance program known as CalAIM, but Hernandez he credits Ghaly with his “unique ability to see how. all the parts work together.”

“Moving all the necessary pieces of government to make those things come together and be strong … that’s incredible leadership,” Hernandez said.

Newsom also credits Ghaly with improving California’s behavioral health system to expand treatment for people in need; creating a state plan to better serve older Californians; and launching CalRx, an initiative for the state to manufacture and distribute its own, low-cost drugs, starting with insulin and naloxone.

Health advocates have praised Ghaly for prioritizing vulnerable communities as health secretary.

“The writer gets it. He finds that our health care system is broken and inadequate to meet the needs of our most disadvantaged community. He used his role to move the needle in the right direction,” said Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children’s Partnership, a nonprofit organization focused on health equity for children.

Alvarez, who also serves on the board of Covered California with Ghaly, said child advocates can be confident that Ghaly’s work as a pediatrician means that children and families will not be overlooked in the health plan. the beauty of the state. When Newsom asked patients to approve the reform of the state’s health care system in March, Ghaly “was very concerned about how these tools will help children and families,” Alvarez said.

He also took the time to listen to public health officials and promoters as he drafted new benefits for Medi-Cal, the government’s insurance program for low-income residents.

“The implementation is not perfect but he has not moved to make sure it works,” Alvarez said.

Bringing home health ideas to Newsom’s cabinet

Ghaly had a long career in public health before joining the Newsom administration. Dr. Clemens Hong, director of community programs at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, first met Ghaly as a medical resident when Ghaly ran a clinic in San Francisco’s Bayview community Hunters Point. .

Ghaly and the local team created a program to help recently released incarcerated people receive health care and reintegrate into society. The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services embraced the idea after Ghaly went to work there as an assistant director. it was forbidden but the advocates said it was necessary for people to wait.

Other programs that Ghaly oversaw in Los Angeles, such as expanded insurance for undocumented immigrants, funding for street medicine groups, and respite care for the homeless, all are included in the national CalAIM program.

“He had the foresight to take it to this local level and figure out how to scale it up,” Hong said.

Ghaly will long be associated with Newsom’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has frustrated some Californians with extended business closures and school closures. Those concerns fueled an unsuccessful recall campaign against Newsom in 2021.

Newsom and Ghaly have defended their policies by saying they have saved lives in an unprecedented epidemic. Newsom admitted that he would have reopened the country earlier if he had today’s understanding of the virus when he made those decisions.

“I think we could have done everything differently,” Newsom said on NBC’s Meet the Press last year.

It is supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to make sure people get the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.