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.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to gut California's new Council on Health Care Delivery Systems and remake it into his own single-payer commission, according to a summary of the plan obtained by POLITICO, as health care advocates jostle for position in California's single-payer debate.
Many California Democrats say they support single-payer health care, but none introduced a new version of the state’s landmark single-payer bill before a key deadline last week.
Assemblyman David Chiu and state Sen. Scott Wiener, both of San Francisco, announced a bill Monday that would prevent public hospitals from charging emergency room patients whose insurance won't cover their medical bills. This practice is called “balance billing,” and according to Chiu, it’s costing Californians thousands of dollars.
WHILE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS ARE FIGHTING TO BE CLASSIFIED AS EMPLOYEES WITH BENEFITS, SOME INDIE WORKERS WHO HAD THEIR DAY IN COURT, WERE DEEMED MISCLASSIFIED AND ARE NOW WORKING “9 TO 5” WANT THEIR FREEDOM BACK.
A line of defense is emerging for top prescription drug companies whose topexecutives will be pulled before Congress on Tuesday to testify about high prices for medicine: They are not to blame.
Laura Lucero Y Ruiz De Gutierrez has a heart condition and fibromyalgia and is in danger of developing diabetes. She has health insurance through her husband’s job. But, between the $800 monthly premium for the couple’s coverage and the $2,100 deductible she has to pay down before insurance starts picking up the tab, she doesn’t feel she can afford to go to the doctor when she needs to.
There is increasingly a push for benefit advisers to bring new technology to clients, but they may need to be more strategic when using it.
California would become the first state to block pharmaceutical companies from paying generic competitors to delay the release of lower-priced drugs under a bill announced Wednesday.
Even before Democrats finish drafting bills to create a single-payer health care system, the health care and insurance industries have assembled a small army of lobbyists to kill “Medicare for all,” an idea that is mocked publicly but is being greeted privately with increasing seriousness.
Disease-specific efforts targeting cancer research and efforts to curb HIV in the U.S. will be among the priorities for the Department of Health and Human Services in the year ahead, Secretary Alex Azar said in a speech on Friday.