Latest California Healthline Stories
Will Firms Cut Jobs — or Benefits — Under ACA? Weighing the Evidence
Questions continue to swirl about the Affordable Care Act’s effect on employment and health coverage, with critics suggesting that the law will lead to more part-time hiring and supporters arguing that the concerns are overblown.
How Will Consumers Choose Exchange Coverage?
The Pacific Business Group on Health yesterday released the third and final installment of its comprehensive report on how to ensure that the people joining a health benefit exchange end up with the plan that works best for them.
“The whole notion of the Affordable Care Act and the establishment of the exchange is to improve the overall health care marketplace,” said Ted von Glahn, a senior director at PBGH, a not-for-profit business coalition focused on health care issues.
“If you don’t get it right when people are making those choices,” von Glahn said, “that would defeat the whole purpose of it.”
No Agenda Yet for Special Session
The one-month delay in the legislative special session on health care should not affect the content of the discussion, according to Assembly member Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), who chairs the Assembly Committee on Health.
“The purpose of the special session is that there’s legislation that is really important to get passed prior to the Jan. 1, 2014 [Affordable Care Act] deadline,” Pan said. “So this will allow us to pass these bills and have them take effect prior to that time. So in [terms of the special session move from December to January], it doesn’t change anything.”
In August, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) announced he would convene a special session in the Legislature after the national election in November, to address elements of the Affordable Care Act. That special session was expected to happen sometime in December.
Republicans Changing Tune — but not Shifting Critical Tone — on Medicaid
A handful of prominent conservatives have dropped their fight against the Affordable Care Act and its Medicaid expansion, but GOP leaders say the program still needs immediate reform.
Exchange Official: Multistate Plans Not Same as Public Option
Multistate insurance plans to be offered under the Affordable Care Act aren’t substitutes for a public option and probably won’t have much influence on competition in California, according to a Covered California official.
Health Care Special Session Slated for January
California’s legislative special session on health care won’t take place until January, according to officials at the California Health and Human Services agency.
Gov. Jerry Brown (D) told legislators in August he will convene a special session in the Legislature “to continue [the] important work of implementing the Affordable Care Act,” Brown wrote in a letter to California legislators. The session was expected to be convened in December.
The special session will be held concurrently with the regular legislative session that begins Jan. 7.
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.
Covered California’s Plans to Become Self-Sufficient
California’s health benefit exchange, now also known as Covered California, eventually is supposed to run by itself without state or federal money. The exchange board took a couple of steps toward that end at Wednesday’s board meeting.
It released its draft Level II establishment grant proposal, which now will be forwarded to federal officials. The proposal is a blueprint for how the exchange will operate in California.
As part of the proposal, exchange officials laid out plans for the exchange to be self-sufficient by 2017.
Long Busy Day for the Exchange Board
The Health Benefit Exchange board issued a draft establishment grant proposal Wednesday, which is basically a blueprint of the exchange’s business and operational plan through 2017, the year it is supposed to become self-sufficient.
The board also took on a number of other issues on Wednesday, including imminent submission of its quality health plans proposal to the Office of Administrative Law. The eight-hour meeting had a get-down-to-business tone, partly in response to the reelection of President Obama, which ensures a smoother track for implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
“We’ve been moving full steam ahead for over a year now,” said Peter Lee, executive director of the HBEx board. “So this is a good meeting to have right after the election.”
Health Task Force Releases Draft Report
The first task has been checked off the list. Yesterday the Let’s Get Healthy California task force met to go over the release of its draft report, the culmination of six months’ work. The final report is slated for completion by Dec. 19.
“When you look at where we are today in California, there are so many challenges we’re facing [in health care],” said Pat Powers, director of the task force. “The population is aging, there are unprecedented levels of chronic disease across the state, and alarming high rates of obesity and diabetes. For the first time in a long time, the children born in this generation may not live as long as their parents.”
That creates a moral imperative to do something to meet all of those needs, Powers said. At the same time, the task force hopes to propose changes that not only improve care but save the state money, as well, she said.