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Industry Updates

This broad category includes articles concerning health insurance costs, carrier and health plan news, changing benefits technology, and surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation and others on employee benefits.

‘The Problem Is Tomorrow’s Variants’: Renowned Bay Area Epidemiologist Predicts Prolonged Pandemic

It will take years, not months, to gain the upper hand in the coronavirus pandemic — and it will require thinking well beyond our borders, says Dr. Larry Brilliant. The 76-year-old Bay Area epidemiologist, who has worked to eradicate smallpox, polio and co-founded the Seva Foundation in Berkeley to combat blindness, has a unique perspective ...

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DOL Drops Support for CalSavers Suit

Citing the “change in administration,” the Department of Labor (DOL) has backed off its previous support for a lawsuit challenging the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program.

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Californians Ask: Where Are Our Coronavirus Vaccines?

With Californians growing desperate to protect themselves from COVID-19 and put the pandemic behind them, many want to know: where are their vaccines? State officials have mostly pointed to insufficient federal supply as the culprit for a slower than expected vaccine rollout.

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Head-Scratching Over Newsom’s Choice of Blue Shield to Lead Vaccination Push

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, struggling to salvage a once-bright political future dimmed by his mishandling of the covid crisis, tapped nonprofit health insurer Blue Shield of California last week to allocate the state’s covid vaccine.

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Covered California to Offer Special IFP Enrollment Period

Covered California says it will give people more time to purchase health insurance this year. Open enrollment for the state's health insurance marketplace ends Sunday. But on Thursday, the agency that runs the marketplace said it would launch a special enrollment period next Monday that will run through May 15.

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‘Coming For You And Your Job’: With Prop. 22, Are Grocery Staff Layoffs Just The Beginning?

When Derrick Neal moved back to the Los Angeles area from Florida last year, after his mother died, he needed to find a job quickly to keep paying his bills.

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Close to 200 Groups Join CalChamber’s Call for COVID-19 Business Relief, Action to Prevent California Employer Exodus

The California Chamber of Commerce and nearly 200 allied business organizations representing all sectors of the economy and employing millions of California workers today sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom and the Legislature calling for specific and immediate actions to curb the impact of the current pandemic-related economic crisis as well as address the underlying causes of an ongoing exodus of employers to other states.

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California’s Top Hospital Lobbyist Cements Influence in Covid Crisis

As intensive care units filled and coronavirus cases surged over the holidays, Carmela Coyle invoked a World War II-era quote attributed to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to rally her own troops: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Coyle is head of the California Hospital Association, and her “troops” are the highly paid hospital ...

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Pandemic Pushes California Lawmakers Into Fast Action on State Budget

California lawmakers are wasting little time debating the $227 billion budget proposal Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week. In a break with the normally slow-moving process that drags out for months, budget committees in both the Assembly and state Senate convened this week to review the governor's spending plan, which includes immediate financial relief to families and businesses hard hit by the pandemic.

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California Lifts Stay-Home Order For Sacramento Region

California lifted a stay-at-home order in the 13-county Sacramento region on Tuesday as hospital conditions improved, a rare turn of good news as the state pushes through what Gov. Gavin Newsom called “its most intense surge” of the coronavirus. The order imposed Dec. 10 banned gatherings outside a household and shuttered or restricted many businesses. ...

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