Latest California Healthline Stories
Advocates Push for Expansion Compromise
The Legislature last week moved two key components of the special session bills on health care reform. SBX1-2 by Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) and ABX1-2 by Assembly member Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) passed through committees of the opposite house. Bothbills make changes to the individual health insurance market.
The Assembly Committee on Health approved SBX1-2, and it’s now going to Appropriations; and ABX1-2 moved through the Senate Committee on Health on its way to Senate Appropriations. Both bills were approved in floor votes in their own house so they are nearing final approval.
Also last week, a Senate floor vote unanimously approved SBX1-3 by Sen. Hernandez, the bridge plan to help people move from Medi-Cal to the exchange more easily. That bill now moves to the Assembly.
California’s School-Based Health Centers See Promise, Challenges in the Affordable Care Act
Claire Brindis of UC-San Francisco, Alex Briscoe of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, Serena Clayton of the California School Health Centers Association and Zena Harvill of the Native American Health Center spoke with California Healthline about how the Affordable Care Act is affecting school-based health centers in California.
How Much Should We Care About Obama’s Budget?
The president’s new budget contains a slew of health care reforms — but given the slender chance they become law, what are the real ramifications? Several experts weigh in.
Immigrant Health Care: Many Not Eligible for Medicaid Expansion
A study finds that a significant portion of low-income individuals in states like California and Texas would not be helped by a potential Medicaid expansion because of their immigration status. The states are assessing other avenues of coverage.
Wellness Programs: Big Brother, or a Big Idea Whose Time Has Come?
Obamacare encourages firms to incent employees to engage in healthy behaviors — but the media firestorm over a CVS plan underscores the fragile politics of workplace wellness programs.
Fate of Special Session Bills in Limbo
The California Legislature went on spring recess yesterday with the work of the special legislative session on health care still undone.
Proponents of the special session bills hoped to get them through a floor vote by now. One of the reasons the governor called the special session was to get bills passed in time to help set the stage for full implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
There are six bills, total, as three mirror-image proposals make their way through both houses.
Concerns Aired Over Health Bridge Bill
The Senate Committee on Health yesterday passed SBX1-3 by Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) on an 8-0 vote.
“This bill would establish a bridge plan for the health benefit exchange, which we now know as Covered California,” Hernandez said. “It will allow people to move from coverage to coverage within the exchange.”
When beneficiaries have a change in family size or income, their eligibility to qualify for certain subsidies within the exchange can change, Hernandez said. The bridge plan tries to make it easier for those people and their families to maintain the same health plan and provider network, even when circumstances change, and that would cut down on churning (administrative upheaval caused when people move from plan to plan), he said.
Five Things Obamacare Got Right — and What Experts Would Fix
The Affordable Care Act celebrates its third birthday this week. Will it be a happy one? In the eyes of experts, here’s a look at what the law got right — and what deserves a do-over.
As Mass. Goes, So Goes California? Questioning the Safety Net’s Future
Although county officials are worried that expanded insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act could prompt newly insured Californians to turn away from safety-net facilities, Massachusetts health reformers say that hasn’t been their experience.
Geographic Rating Regions Amended
The Assembly and Senate last week introduced amendments to SBX1-2 by Sen. Ed Hernández (D-West Covina) and ABX1-2 by Assembly member Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), which change the geographic rating regions for the individual and small health insurance markets in California.
The amendments establish the 19-region plan, the same regions adopted by the Legislature last year for larger-market insurers.
The state’s health benefit exchange, Covered California, favored the 19-region plan in part because it mirrors last year’s large-market legislation and could avoid consumer and industry confusion.