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.
UnitedHealth had the opportunity to join Covered California in 2013 as the Affordable Care Act was rolled out. However, the insurer left the state's individual health insurance market and decided not to participate in most of the ACA exchanges across the country.
On Monday, four U.S. lawmakers from California sent a letter to Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee raising privacy concerns about the exchange's plan to analyze enrollee data, Politico's "Morning eHealth" reports.
The cost of private individual health plans on California's state-run market will increase about 4 percent for the second straight year, evidence the strategy of forcing insurers to compete is controlling costs, program officials said Monday.
Up to 4.5 million people may have had their medical information stolen in a recent cyberattack on the UCLA Health System.
Four-hospital UCLA Health said Friday that cyber criminals hit part of its network that contains the records of an estimated 4.5 million people.
Without another pool of potential enrollees, the Affordable Care Act likely will face enrollment stagnation -- and that could threaten the country's steadily falling uninsured rate.
More than a dozen other states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the ACA also have seen enrollment surpass expectations.
San Francisco will begin offering subsidies to thousands of city residents who are struggling to purchase health insurance, Mayor Ed Lee announced Friday.
Last week, Covered California announced more than $10 million in grants for navigator organizations to help boost enrollment in the state exchange during the next open enrollment period, KRON4 reports.
On Thursday, Assembly member Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) introduced a bill (ABX2-4) that would impose a flat tax on all California managed care plans in an effort to retain about $1 billion in federal matching funds, the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" reports.