California Watch
News stories in this section spotlight activities in California, including actions by the state Assembly and state Senate; proposed legislation; regulators like the Department of Managed Health Care and Department of Insurance; and the state ACA exchange, Covered California.
When can companies in California classify their workers as independent contractors instead of employees? That’s the question that's been hot on the minds of California lawmakers, labor unions and tech companies since April, when the California Supreme Court ruled that businesses must satisfy three guidelines to classify workers as contractors.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is laying out her strategy on health care and first up is improvements to "Obamacare" and legislation to lower prescription drug costs. "Medicare for all" will get hearings.
Last week, California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, promised to pursue a smörgåsbord of changes to his state’s health care system: state negotiation of drug prices, a requirement that every Californian have health insurance, more assistance to help middle-class Californians afford it and health care for undocumented immigrants up to age 26.
Officials from state health exchange Covered California are ramping up efforts to enroll people in health coverage as the deadline to sign up looms.
California is once again defending the Affordable Care Act, leading a coalition of Democratic states against a small army of Republican lawmakers seeking to undo the Obama administration’s signature health care law.
Blue Shield of California is unfairly targeting hundreds of thousands of Covered California enrollees with a coverage change that would prevent them from getting routine care when they are working outside of California, one enrollee told The Sacramento Bee.
Even when patients go out of their way to find hospitals and labs in their insurance network, they might end up getting treated by an out-of-network specialist.
Hoping to empower consumers who are shouldering more and more of their health care costs each year, the federal government this year is requiring hospitals across the country to post their standard price lists on their websites.
Specialty drugs made up about 3% of prescriptions in California in 2017 but accounted for more than half of the prescription drug spending that year, according to new report that compiled drug spending from nine insurers in that state.
Each of the seven California Democrats who flipped Republican congressional seats in the midterm election campaigned for more government-funded health care — with most of them calling for a complete government takeover.