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.
In a significant yardstick of how health care coverage has blanketed the country under the Affordable Care Act, California ranked among states recording the biggest drop – 4.7 percent – in uninsured residents from 2013 to 2014, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Wednesday. The new data confirm California has seen “one of the ...
Lifting some of the secrecy surrounding California healthcare, state officials unveiled a website where consumers can look up average prices for common medical procedures — as well as quality scores for providers. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, consumer advocates and researchers hailed the online tool launched Monday as the first step in prying more detailed ...
California’s pharmacists would be required to provide prescription drug labels or medication instructions in five languages besides English under a bill passed unanimously Thursday by California lawmakers. The bill, AB 1073, will be sent to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature and would take effect Jan. 1 if signed into law. Upon request from patients ...
On Tuesday, the California Senate voted 24-15 to approve a bill (AB 305) that would prohibit medical problems primarily affecting women from being considered pre-existing conditions when calculating workers’ compensation benefits, the AP/Washington Times reports. The bill now returns to the Assembly for a final vote. Details of AB 305 According to state Sen. Marty ...
California has adopted a series of laws in recent years to help people in the country illegally, and polls show broad support for a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 2 million such immigrants living in the state. But it’s a different story when it comes to providing them healthcare benefits. California voters are sharply ...
California had the most health insurance exchange enrollees of any state, with about 1.4 million enrollees as of June 30, according to new federal data, The Hill reports (Sullivan, The Hill, 9/8). Details of Exchange Enrollees Overall, the data show about 9.9 million U.S. residents had selected and paid for health coverage through the federal ...
By sheer number of covered lives, Kaiser Permanente has been California’s largest health insurer for decades. But if Anthem gets its way — no longer. The Indianapolis-based insurer is currently the second-largest health insurer in the Golden State, and one of the three largest health insurers in the nation. Its planned mega-merger with Cigna is ...
As the open enrollment season for employer-sponsored health insurance gets underway this fall, experts say there’s one group that should definitely consider changing plans: people who have coverage through their former employer under the federal law known as COBRA. COBRA allows people who leave their jobs to keep their job-based group coverage for 18 months, ...
California legislators passed a bill postponing a controversial plan that would have shifted tens of thousands of medically fragile children into Medi-Cal managed care plans. The bill, AB 187, passed both houses Thursday and will be sent to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature. At issue was the fate of the California Children’s Services program, ...
California’s largest health plan group this week declared its opposition to both of the healthcare special session bills that would impose new taxes on managed-care organizations, the latest sign that a replacement for a soon-to-expire health plan tax is unlikely to emerge before lawmakers adjourn next week. Health plan taxation is the focus of the ...