The Health Law

Latest California Healthline Stories

Most Californians Support Reform, Poll Shows

A Field Poll released today shows that only 17% of Californians are aware of the state’s nascent Health Benefit Exchange but a a high percentage of Californians like the basic tenets of health care reform and the exchange, according to Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll.

“It’s definitely low, and that is somewhat to be expected, given that they haven’t done any outreach or marketing yet,” DiCamillo said. “What will really be interesting is how much we see that change over time, whether there is greater awareness among certain subgroups later, as the exchange gets closer to actual operation.”

In general, DiCamillo said, opinions about the exchange and reform mirror political affiliation. Favorable opinions about health care reform tend to run higher in California.

Basic Health Plan Not Among Slew of Approved Bills

The demise of the Basic Health Program in California came quietly.

When SB 703 by Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) came before the Assembly Committee on Appropriations and committee yesterday, chair Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) had seven words for it: “That bill goes to the holding committee.”

Those seven words effectively ended BHP for this legislative session, though it may come back again in 2013.

Amendments Could Move Basic Health Program to Floor Vote

Today a bill to create a state Basic Health Program comes before the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, with the intention of getting sprung out of committee and to the legislative floor for a vote.

SB 703 by Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) is currently “on suspense” — a kind of legislative limbo for bills with significant potential fiscal impact on California.  All bills with a financial impact of $150,000 a year or more have to be put on the suspense file. The appropriations committee can then evaluate all of those bigger-ticket items collectively, so that the committee can better regulate how much spending it approves.

Hernandez has been proposing amendments that would lessen the potential financial impact of SB 703, and today the committee will decide whether or not to remove the bill from suspense.

Will Basic Health Program Hurt, Help Exchange?

An analysis of a proposed Basic Health Program and its impact on the Health Benefit Exchange offers a mixed bag of pros and cons for exchange leaders and legislators.

The nascent Basic Health Program, if passed by the Legislature, would target a large percentage of possible exchange participants. So the question lawmakers have been wrestling with is: Would that be a good or a bad thing for the exchange, and for Californians?

That’s the question tackled by the exchange itself. On Monday, it released an independent analysis by the UC-Berkeley Labor Center and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which was commissioned by the exchange board.

Ombudsman, Immunization Bills Up for Floor Vote

Dozens of health-related bills passed through committee last week, setting up pending floor votes starting this week.

The last hurdle for many bills is the appropriations committee of each house. Those committees ran at high speed last week, churning out approvals for hundreds of bills.

The Legislature has until the end of August to vote on all bills.

Some of the health-related bills that cleared committee last week:

California’s LIHP a Big Success

The Low Income Health Program, launched 20 months ago, already has more than 400,000 Californians signed up. Health care experts gathered in Sacramento yesterday to discuss one of the successes in California’s health reform effort.

“We hear about a lot of issues people have, but the issue that rises to the top is the LIHP,” said Agnes Lee, health policy advisor to the Assembly speaker’s office.

“Among the doom and gloom of the state budget, there is a bright spot out there. LIHP is one of those rare examples of an innovative, forward-thinking program … and this is something the nation is definitely looking at, as something significant,” Lee said at yesterday’s conference, “Low Income Health Program: Evolution,” sponsored by the Blue Shield of California Foundation.

Mass. Panic: Did State Wait Too Long To Try Cost Control?

Experts are cautiously optimistic that a new Massachusetts law will be a much-anticipated cure for the state’s rising health spending. But others say that the state’s new cost controls — which could be a model for the nation — aren’t the right prescription for reform.