Latest California Healthline Stories
Dave Jones Reflects on 2nd Year, Stresses Need for Rate Regulation
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones reflected on his first two years on the job and stressed the importance of the state gaining authority to regulate health insurance premiums during a question-and-answer session with California Healthline.
Five Things To Watch in Health Care in 2013
If 2012 was a high-wire political act, and 2014 will bring a rush of implementation, will next year be an intermission or sprint for health care? Here are five indicators to watch in the coming months.
Call for MLR Regulation Gets Mixed Reaction
The Commonwealth Fund on Wednesday released a study on the federal medical-loss ratio rule, which concluded that regulation may need to be introduced to maximize the effect of the MLR.
“In future years, the MLR rule may need to be coupled with regulatory pressure in order for any further reductions in administrative costs to be reflected in reduced premium rates,” the study said.
That squares with the opinion from the state insurance commissioner, but the medical insurance industry does not agree.
What Health Policy Wonks Are ‘Thankful’ for This Thanksgiving
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act are grateful that the law will survive, while some conservative health policy scholars remain glad that parts of Obamacare can still be delayed.
Can the GOP Still Stop Obamacare? Let’s Count the Ways
The Affordable Care Act has survived, but will it thrive? Republicans can still play a role in working to derail the law’s provisions and implementation, although their interest in doing so appears to be dwindling.
The Second Term: What’s Next for Obama’s Health Care Agenda
The president’s re-election cinches it: The Affordable Care Act will stand. But how the law is implemented — and which states will opt in — remains to be settled.
Exchange Picks New Name: Covered California
The California Health Benefit Exchange board voted Tuesday to adopt a new name for the health insurance coverage it will offer starting January 2014 — Covered California.
The decision comes after months of work. In August, the long list of potential names was winnowed to about a dozen possible names — including CaliHealth, CalAccess, Wellquest, PACcess and Covered California. The list alos included unusual trademark names such as Ursa, Healthifornia, Eureka, Beneficia, Cal-Vida and Condor, as well as the crowd favorite, Avocado.
After designing logos, holding focus group meetings and running trademark searches, that list was cut down to four finalists in September: Ursa, Eureka, CaliHealth and Covered California. Trademark concerns emerged around Ursa and CaliHealth, and those names were dropped, said Chris Kelly, who made the final name presentation to the exchange board.
How Health Care Changed While You Were Watching the Election
A handful of recent deals and reforms in the private sector could prove to be transformative for health care — and may ultimately matter more than who’s sitting in the Oval Office.
How to Deal With Remaining Millions Uninsured
Health care experts gathered in Sacramento this week to take on the thorny issue of what to do about the estimated 3.1 million to 4 million Californians who will remain uninsured after five years of implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
The symposium, held on Monday and sponsored by the Insure the Uninsured Project, focused on what to do about the new estimate of uninsured in California.
Last month, the UC-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research issued a joint report, “After Millions of Californians Gain Health Coverage under the Affordable Care Act, Who Will Remain Uninsured?”
Premium Reduction Approved for State High-Risk Coverage
Change is coming for the 5,823 current enrollees in California’s Major Risk Medical Insurance Program, and it’s change they’re going to feel in their pockets.
Premium rates are about to go down to match the rates paid in the similar federal program, the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.
The Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which oversees the state plan, voted last week to adopt the new premium rate cut that was made possible by a new state law.