Insurers and employers are taking a renewed interest in programs that help people deal with chronic _ and potentially expensive _ health problems.

Health care costs rise every year, but the nation’s biggest employers still see insurance coverage as an important benefit to provide.

An appeals court overturned a federal judge’s sweeping order that required the city and county of Los Angeles to quickly find shelter for all homeless people living on downtown’s Skid Row.

Marshals Service officers after holding a court hearing at the Downtown Women's Center in Los Angeles Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. “This is an extraordinary hearing,” Carter said, acknowledging the setting but also the scope of the problem facing the court. “The only answer is housing!” said Pete White, an activist with the Los Angeles Community Action Network. A January 2020 count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported that there were more than 66,400 homeless people living in Los Angeles County — by far the largest single concentration in the state. Carter noted that 1,383 homeless people died in the city and county of Los Angeles last year, a 32% increase from 2019.