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 the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace opens in two weeks, many consumers will have a new option for the law’s fourth open-enrollment period: standardized health plans that cover basic services without a deductible.
Each time over the past decade or so that New York state increased its tobacco tax — now at $4.35 per pack of cigarettes — calls to the state’s Quitline spiked.
Covered California has fixed its computer system to prevent pregnant women in a certain income range from being transferred into Medi-Cal without their knowledge or consent.
The “public option,” which stoked fierce debate in the run-up to the Affordable Care Act, is making a comeback — at least among Democratic politicians.
Even as turmoil in insurance markets nationwide fuels renewed election-year attacks on the Affordable Care Act, California is emerging as a clear illustration of what the law can achieve.
The Word & Brown Companies have been named employer of the year winner in the insurance category at the inaugural Stevie® Awards for Great Employers.
Seniors, look out. Your Medicare plan may have checked out.
Aiming to attract and keep top-notch talent, a growing number of companies are dangling family-friendly perks such as lengthy paid leave for new moms and dads, back-up child care and onsite infant vaccines. But the attention-grabbing headlines — such as “IBM plans to ship employees’ breast milk home” — obscure the reality that for many workers, basic benefits such as guaranteed parental leave, even unpaid, is unavailable.
Federal auditors ruled on Thursday that the Obama administration had violated the law by paying health insurance companies more than allowed under the Affordable Care Act in an effort to hold down insurance premiums.
Congress will likely need to take action for the second year in a row to keep out-of-pocket health care costs from significantly rising in 2017 for some seniors. A group of 75 health care and employer groups on Tuesday sent congressional leaders a letter urging them to prevent this from happening.