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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.

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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California Budget Reflects ‘Pandemic-Induced Reality,’ Governor Says

The coronavirus pandemic doomed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plans last year to combat homelessness, expand behavioral health services and create a state agency to control soaring health care costs.

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California’s Vaccine Rollout Has Been Too Slow, Newsom Says, With Only 35% Of Doses Administered

Only about 35% of the COVID-19 vaccine doses that have arrived in California have been administered so far, a rate Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged Monday was “not good enough” as he pledged new funding and efforts aimed at ramping up the rollout.

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With More Vaccine Doses Coming, California Counties Scramble To Make Distribution Plans

Sacramento health care workers and nursing home residents have been receiving COVID-19 vaccines since last week, and county health departments are beginning to make plans for wider distribution. But health officials say it will still be several months before the general public is lining up for shots. California has mapped out several phases of vaccine ...

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