Latest California Healthline Stories
Single Payer 2 Votes Short in Senate
The idea of a single-payer health care system in California stalled on the Senate floor yesterday, falling two votes short of passage.
Reconsideration of the bill was granted, though, so proponents of SB 810 by Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) have until Tuesday to reintroduce the bill. First they will have to come up with two big votes. The bill failed on a 19-15 vote.
“We don’t want to follow the path of Europe, where the economy is in trouble, where the Euro is failing,” Sen. Ted Gaines (R-Roseville) said. “It’s not the example we should follow. We don’t have the money. I don’t know where the money’s going to come from.”
State of the Union: Time To Trim the Regulatory Fat in Health Care?
President Obama scarcely mentioned health care in last night’s speech — and perhaps that’s more of a metaphor than the president intended. In keeping with the Obama administration’s efforts to cut through “red tape,” efforts are growing to rein in federal health care regulations.
Appropriations Committee Moves Single Payer Toward Floor
After all the drama, controversy and heated debate over legislation to set up a single-payer health care system in years past, last week’s appropriations committee approval of the measure was strikingly brief and uneventful.
Like several other bills up for approval at last week’s hearing, there was no presentation on single payer — only a vote, followed by an eight-word pronouncement from Senate Committee on Appropriations Chair Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego):
“OK,” Kehoe said, “6 to 2, that measure is out.”
Lots To Do With Less Than Two Years To Go
It is an eventful month for the California Health Benefit Exchange board.
Tomorrow, it releases its final solicitation for technology to help run the exchange. Proposals are due at the end of this month for the communication, outreach, assisters and health plan management components of the exchange.
Meanwhile, Executive Director Peter Lee said at yesterday’s board meeting, the exchange has continued to hire new personnel and is now negotiating for office space to lease in Sacramento to accommodate all of those new hires.
Newly Enacted State Legislation Looks Toward Implementation of Federal Health Reform Law
John Arensmeyer of Small Business Majority, Diana Dooley of California’s Health and Human Services Agency and Anthony Wright of Health Access spoke with California Healthline about California’s efforts to prepare the state for changes under the federal health reform law.
It May Be Time ‘To Take the Pain’ on Medicaid
New Kaiser Family Foundation data illustrate the rise in Medicaid enrollment and lawmakers’ continuing struggle to control costs. Budget battles in Washington state, not Washington, D.C., may show the future of the program: stark efforts to slow utilization.
‘Road Map’ Lays Out Details for Building Exchange
The Children’s Partnership “blueprint for reform” released this week marks an important milestone in the formation of California’s Health Benefit Exchange, according to Kristen Golden Testa, health director of the Children’s Partnership.
“The [Health Benefit] Exchange board did a lot of work on the visioning process, figuring out what they wanted the exchange to be like,” Golden Testa said. “This offers a road map to get to a lot of the visioning pieces.”
The report was released in draft form to the exchange board in December, and some of the detail laid out in the report may have helped board staff develop that RFP, Golden Testa said.
Four Resolutions We Hope Lawmakers Will Keep This Year
The Republicans have promised a replacement for the health reform law. The Democrats had planned a payment advisory panel. Both parties want a “doc fix.” Will this be the year lawmakers stick to their promises?
Exchange Board Has One Meeting To Consider HHS List
Just before the most recent California Health Benefit Exchange board meeting, the federal Health and Human Services agency released its list of proposed essential health benefits. Aimed at ensuring that health plans in individual and small group markets offer a minimum of coverage — both inside and outside of health benefit exchanges — the HHS proposed list is scheduled to take effect in 2014.
Board members got a quick briefing on the proposed requirements, since comments on them are due at the end of January. That leaves the board with one more meeting — on Jan. 17 — to approve comments on those benefit requirements, according to Peter Lee, executive director of the board.
“It’s something we didn’t expect to see,” Lee said. “We didn’t know it was coming.”
New Year, New Deals? Breaking Down Health Plan, Doctor Alliances
Is California driving the next health care earthquake? A striking batch of insurers and physician groups are teaming up — and shaking up the industry — with the Golden State at the epicenter.