Latest California Healthline Stories
Experts: Medicaid Expansion Will Stand; Mandate’s Fate Unclear
Legal and health policy experts were divided in their predictions about how specific challenges to the Affordable Care Act may play out in the Supreme Court, but all agreed that substantive changes to the law could have profound effects in California.
Does Obama Deserve Blame for Mandate’s Troubles?
Candidate Obama opposed health reform’s individual mandate; President Obama signed the mandate into law. Why did the president shift his thinking — and will the decision haunt his signature legislation?
Solution to Physician Shortage May Lie in Mid-Level Practitioners
Ed Hernandez, an optometrist, can see it coming.
The Democrat Senate member from West Covina yesterday helped convene the second hearing in a week to explore the looming shortage of primary care providers in California. The addition of millions of newly insured along with a likely decline in the number of physicians in California is an equation that worries Hernandez. He said the gap is unlikely to be filled in traditional ways.
“Last week we looked at the shortage of providers in California, a shortage that will not lessen,” Hernandez said yesterday at a joint meeting of the Senate Committee on Health and the Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development.
Designing Exchange Framework as Building Begins
Creating a statewide insurance exchange has been compared to drawing plans for a skyscraper while pouring the foundation — under a tight deadline. We invited experts and stakeholders to share advice with designers and builders of the California Health Benefit Exchange.
Clues to How the Supreme Court Might Rule on Health Reform
The fate of the Affordable Care Act rests in the hands of the Supreme Court justices, who next week will hear oral arguments over three days. How the court might rule is a hot topic — and several historic court decisions provide some hints as to which way the case will go.
Trying To Provide Solutions to Patient Access
California is in a bit of a fix, according to Senate member Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), chair of the Senate Committee on Health.
The state doesn’t have enough physicians and other primary care providers now, according to some estimates. That shortage will become more acute in 2014 when the Affordable Care Act brings up to four million newly insured Californians into the system, looking for providers to care for them.
“2014 is essentially here,” Hernandez said yesterday at a Senate health committee hearing on primary care workforce issues. “We have had a historic piece of legislation pass at the federal level, the most historic health legislation since the Lyndon Johnson administration, when the Medicare Act was passed. But there are a lot of unknowns still, including how to implement it.”
Is California Ready for Millions of Newly Insured?
Not only does the state face a challenge in training enough health care workers to care for millions of newly insured Californians in 2014, state officials also have to figure out how to distribute the workforce efficiently, according to the Center for the Health Professions at UC-San Francisco.
On the Health Reform Trail: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
At the two year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, California has made significant progress in establishing an insurance exchange and undertaking other provisions of the law. However, the road ahead is marked by uncertainty, and California must meet more challenges before the job is done.
Reforms Will Continue in California, Leaders Predict
No matter what the Supreme Court rules in the challenge to the Affordable Care Act, health care reform will continue in California, according to state leaders. The pathways and pacing could change, but efforts already underway — including the California Health Benefit Exchange — will move forward, leaders predicted.
Health Care Reform Driving Physicians Together
Hospitals increasingly are employing physicians, while independent doctors are teaming up to jointly contract with health insurers — driven in large part by the Affordable Care Act. Both trends have led to larger provider networks, though the effect on health care costs is not yet clear.