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.
It hasn’t qualified for the ballot. And the measure’s implications are so complicated that even the experts at the Legislative Analyst’s Office had a hard time gauging its fiscal effects. But the proposed “California Drug Price Relief Act” already has the attention of the drug industry, with major companies in recent days donating more than ...
Nearly half of the estimated 700,000 Californians who have dropped their Obamacare policies during the past two years have enrolled in an employer-based plan, a new report from the Covered California exchange shows. In a news conference Thursday, Peter Lee, the organization’s executive director, said there were about 1.3 million Californians enrolled in the exchange’s ...
In advance of the Nov. 1 start of open enrollment for Covered California, new numbers show that just over half of the state’s remaining uninsured are eligible for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The estimate was part of a state-by-state analysis compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Researchers found that California has ...
A bill that requires health care insurers to update their provider directories with accurate information has been signed by Gov. Jerry Brown and will take effect in July. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, and sponsored by three statewide health advocacy and consumer groups, was proposed in response to numerous complaints ...
On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill to make health insurance companies release accurate directories of their network of physicians and other providers. It was one of 10 health-related bills the governor approved on Thursday. Other bills now becoming law include an effort to cap the cost of prescription drug co-payments and a ...
Last year, the budget writers in Gov. Jerry Brown's administration held their noses when Democrats pushed through the Legislature a $3.2-million subsidy for a union healthcare plan.
"Hundreds of millions of dollars" in insurance claims nationally, and possibly far more, could shift from health insurers to workers' comp carriers due to Obamacare, according to a new study.
Compared with other states, California is ahead in terms of expanding health care coverage to undocumented immigrants, and some experts say it could spur other states to follow suit, the Los Angeles Times reports.
But in California this spring, something different happened: A merger fell through.
Six years after eliminating health coverage for adult immigrants living in the U.S. illegally during the Great Recession, Contra Costa County has cobbled together enough money to begin insuring them again, although the program could be short-lived. The Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to launch a $1 million pilot program aimed at providing primary ...