Latest California Healthline Stories
1.5M Young Adults Must Still Sign Up for ACA To Hit Projections. Don’t Count on It.
While the pace of sign-ups by young adults nudged up in January, enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces is still well off expectations. Experts acknowledge it’s a concern, but not a crisis — yet.
San Diego’s Covered California Enrollment Ahead of Projections
San Diego is exceeding expectations in Covered California sign-ups. So far the region has reached 105% of its enrollment projection for the new health insurance exchange.
Looking Back, Some Obamacare Glitches Didn’t Matter. These Four Still Do.
For all the talk about broken websites, some of the high-profile problems with the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges turned out to be surmountable. But other complications have emerged and remain concerning.
This Program Was Bigger Than Covered California. Why Did We Ignore It?
By December 2013, nearly 700,000 people had obtained health coverage through California’s Low-Income Health Program, the state’s early expansion of Obamacare coverage — and the “most overlooked” part of health reform, one expert tells California Healthline. Here’s a look at lessons to be learned from the LIHP.
Most Small Health Plans Aren’t Thriving in Covered California. Meet Two Exceptions.
One small health insurer dropped out of Covered California. Another was kicked out, and a third is openly hunting for business. But a pair of plans are successfully competing with the big players dominating the exchange and carving out a slice of the market for themselves.
Narrow Networks in Covered California Plans Causing Confusion in San Diego
Insurers selling health plans through Covered California are limiting access to providers to hold down the cost of premiums. In San Diego, networks are in flux, leaving both consumers and doctors confused about who is participating in which networks.
What Would Success Look Like for Exchange’s Small Business Program?
State health officials have started a new push to get small-business owners to seek health coverage through Covered California — a very different kind of program than the individual-market effort.
Early data suggest that customers are using the new health insurance exchange to pick plans from large, familiar companies like Anthem and Kaiser, even if plans from smaller companies are comparable in price.
What Medicare Part D Can — and Can’t — Teach Us About the Affordable Care Act
Increasingly, observers are cautioning: Don’t rush to judgment about the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces, because the launch of Medicare Part D was rocky, too. But comparing the two programs makes less and less sense as the weeks go by.
Should Obamacare Be Delayed — And More to the Point, Can It?
Mounting problems with the federal health insurance exchange have sparked widespread concern, and even supporters of the ACA are turning critical. Experts weigh in on whether the individual mandate and other elements of Obamacare should, or even can, be delayed if the problems persist.