Author: Scott Welch
California Gov. Gavin Newsom defended himself on Monday amid outrage over a maskless photo he took Sunday with basketball legend Magic Johnson at an NFL playoff game in Los Angeles where all spectators were required to wear masks. “I was trying to be gracious, and I made a mist — you know, I mean, I ...
AHIP, the top lobbying organization for commercial insurers, is warning the feds that provisions in its proposed rule governing the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges for 2023 could “undermine” the growing stability there. For instance, the group says in comments (PDF) submitted late Thursday that potential changes to requirements for essential health benefits would limit the ability for ...
Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers reached an agreement Tuesday to again require employers to provide workers with up to two weeks of supplemental paid sick leave to recover from COVID-19 or care for a family member with the virus. The legislation, which lawmakers would likely fast-track to the governor in the coming weeks, would ...
Proposed changes to a CMS program that shifts funds to insurers that attract higher-risk consumers, intended to boost plan enrollment by lowering some premiums, could have the opposite effect and should be abandoned, researchers from the Brookings Institution and the University of Southern California argue in a new analysis. The CMS risk adjustment program established under ...
The Biden administration is withdrawing its Covid vaccination-or-test requirement for large employers, citing the Supreme Court’s recent decision to block the rule. The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, said Tuesday that the withdrawal of the emergency mandate would be effective Wednesday. The Supreme Court this month blocked the mandate, which required larger businesses to ensure that ...
The White House is exploring a push for a coronavirus-related paid leave program akin to that enacted in an earlier round of pandemic relief, three people familiar with the conversations said Thursday. It would be much more narrowly tailored than the 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all workers Biden proposed in ...
The Biden administration is exploring ways for Medicare beneficiaries to get over-the-counter, at-home COVID-19 tests for free. The White House is requiring private insurance companies to cover the cost of eight at-home COVID-19 tests per person each month, if the customer files for reimbursement. The requirement was put in place as a result of the ...
The Health and Human Services Department has failed to fix long-standing problems in its pandemic response, putting its ability to respond to future emergencies in jeopardy, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Thursday. The watchdog agency included HHS on its “High Risk List” of federal departments and programs susceptible to mismanagement and abuse ...
This measure, after all, would completely change healthcare coverage for Californians. Insurance companies would be shoved aside. People would be switched from their current coverage — whether private, federal Medicare or Medi-Cal for the poor — to a new state-run plan called CalCare.
We need your help in requesting that the California Assembly OPPOSE AB 1400, which mandates a government-run single payer health care program and abolishes private health insurance, Medi-Cal, Medicare, Covered California, and the valuable advocacy services of insurance professionals.