California Watch

Covered California will allow consumers to apply for health coverage from Feb. 23 to April 30 if they claim to have been unaware of the new tax penalty for foregoing insurance, the health benefit exchange announced Friday.

Obamacare-loving California led the nation in embracing the health-care law, and in enrolling its citizens for 2014 coverage.

California's Obamacare exchange sent erroneous tax forms to about 100,000 households that received federal premium subsidies last year.

Stephanie Daugherty earns too much from her part-time job at a doctor's office to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to comfortably afford one of the health plans for sale through the federally-run insurance exchange that Texas and many states use.

Large employers could no longer provide workers with minimal health plans that provide less than 60 percent of the cost of essential care, under legislation introduced this week by Assemblyman Roger Hernández.

Americans who couldn't enroll in federal Obamacare insurance plans over the weekend because of computer glitches or long waits will now have until next Sunday to sign up, federal officials announced early Monday.

Covered California has vowed to promote health insurance enrollment until Sunday - the final day of the sign-up period – and will allow five extra days for finishing last-minute applications.

There's expected to be a mad dash of last-minute sign ups as the Feb. 15 deadline for enrolling in a Covered California health plan approaches.

University of California researchers last week determined there are between 2.7 million and 3.4 million people without health insurance in California -- about 1.5 million of them undocumented.

UnitedHealthcare can’t have its cake and eat it too. That’s the message from the California health insurance marketplace, which turned aside a request from the nation’s largest health insurer to sell statewide on the exchange because it opted not to join when the effort was getting off the ground in 2014.