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.
A California Senate Health Committee voted 7-0 Wednesday to expand health care coverage for all Californians, regardless of their immigration status. The bill by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, would expand Medi-Cal eligibility for immigrants here illegally who are income-eligible. It is one of 10 bills that aims to expand the rights of people who ...
Covered California’s small employer insurance program is growing, but a private-sector competitor is growing faster. CaliforniaChoice has 12,070 employers in its program and 218,648 enrollees. That’s up from 11,500 employers and 150,000 members last August. By comparison, Covered California has 2,289 employers and 15,633 enrollees, up from 1,7000 employers and 11,500 members in August. Both ...
The largest publicly run health plan in the nation, L.A. Care, will allow customers who do not have traditional bank accounts to pay their health insurance premiums with cash. One in four Americans who were previously uninsured and eligible for federal insurance subsidies do not have a bank account, relying instead on pre-paid debit cards, ...
Mark Morgan, 48, president of the company's California business since 2013, will depart April 24.
As consumers increasingly are being asked to pay a larger share of their health bills, a coalition of insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and provider and consumer advocacy groups launched Thursday a new push for greater transparency regarding the actual costs of services.
By weaving together a hodgepodge of patient information, clinical data and scientific know-how, California officials hope to create a sort of "Google Maps for health" to drive the right therapies to the right people at the right time.
California ranked in the bottom five states on overall growth during open enrollment this year, according to an analysis by Avalere Health, in large part because it trailed only Vermont and Washington state in retaining 2014 enrollees among states that reported full results.
Covered California has enrolled about 18,000 people so far in a special enrollment program for individuals who didn’t understand the tax consequences of not signing up for health insurance in 2015.
The lingering effects of the recession, slow income growth and possibly Obamacare are all contributing to a sharp drop in estimates of how much will be spent on health care through the rest of this decade.
California and insurers in the state owe thousands of dollars in commissions to insurance agents who have helped individuals and families enroll in health coverage during Covered California's open enrollment periods, the CHCF Center for Health Reporting/Sacramento Bee reports.