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.
President Obama's executive actions on immigration, which have sparked a fierce political backlash nationwide, could also provide an unlikely boost for another of his goals: increasing health insurance signups.
With billions of dollars in reserve, nonprofit insurer Blue Shield of California is facing new pressure to offer better prices for its policies.
Unions lined up Wednesday to oppose Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to offer high-deductible medical coverage to state employees, suggesting it could hurt workers’ health instead of improving it. “We think that high-deductible plans are a very bad thing,” SEIU Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker said during a Senate subcommittee hearing into Brown’s plan. Meanwhile, state ...
California’s Obamacare exchange has sent out 120,000 corrected tax forms, but it said tens of thousands of other consumers are still waiting for their information. Peter Lee, executive director of the Covered California exchange, said those remaining households should get tax forms related to their health-law subsidies by the end of March. “We are very ...
Kaiser Permanente was ranked highest for customer satisfaction in California for the eighth consecutive year — ahead of all other health plans statewide that were included in the study — according to the J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Member Health Plan Study released this week.
State officials have said they're handling about one million renewals a month for Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program. It's a process that started in June 2014.
The hospital industry in the San Francisco Bay Area is undergoing a "shakeup" as small and independent facilities undergo sales, potential closures and other changes -- a trend that experts say could spread throughout the state as the federal government works to reduce health care costs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
A reliable maxim of Capitol politics is that big money begets heavy-duty politicking – and in 21st century California, nothing is bigger than health care.
California fell short of its second-year enrollment goal for Obamacare, but don’t blame insurance agents. They accounted for 43% of new enrollment in Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange. That compares with 30% of people who enrolled themselves online or 10% who turned to a certified enrollment counselor or navigator. The strong performance of ...
Under the health law, large employers that don't offer their full-time workers comprehensive, affordable health insurance face a fine. But some employers are taking it a step further and requiring workers to buy the company insurance, whether they want it or not.