Latest News On State Exchanges

Latest California Healthline Stories

With ACA’s Future In Peril, California Reins In Rising Health Insurance Premiums

Premiums will grow by an average of 0.8% next year on the state health insurance exchange. Officials cite two new policies for the relatively low rate hike: a new state tax penalty on Californians who don’t have health insurance coupled with state-based tax credits to help enrollees afford their premiums, including middle-income people who make too much money to qualify for federal financial aid. 

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Insurance Enrollment Is Lagging — And There Are Lots Of Reasons Why

Sign-ups for insurance under the Affordable Care Act are still well behind last year’s mark with just a week until the end of open enrollment in most states. The Supreme Court declines a case that could have allowed states to defund Planned Parenthood. And the Trump administration gets hundreds of thousands of comments about its proposed changes to immigration rules that could penalize people who use government-funded health care and other social service programs. Alice Ollstein of Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and, for “extra credit,” provide their favorite health policy stories of the week.

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Live From Aspen!

In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times report from the Spotlight Health portion of the annual Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. They’re joined by Democratic Govs. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Steve Bullock of Montana.

Calif. Exchange Chief Sees No Rate Impact From Latest Trump Challenge To ACA

Peter Lee says the court challenge will take time and California will have a chance to pass its own protections in the interim. However, the decision by Congress to eliminate the tax penalty on people who choose not to buy insurance will weigh on 2019 premiums, Lee said. Recent projections by the exchange show an average 11 percent rate hike in 2019, along with a 12 percent drop in enrollment.