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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.

Proposed Changes Could Raise Individual and Group Premiums

A seemingly minor change included in the Administration’s proposed rule setting Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace standards for 2020 would raise premiums for at least 7.3 million marketplace consumers by cutting their premium tax credits. These higher premiums — for example, $196 more annually for a family of four with income of $80,000 — would cause 100,000 people to drop marketplace coverage each year, according to the Administration’s own estimates.

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Pelosi Health Care Strategy

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is laying out her strategy on health care and first up is improvements to "Obamacare" and legislation to lower prescription drug costs. "Medicare for all" will get hearings.

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Can States Fix American Health Care?

Last week, California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, promised to pursue a smörgåsbord of changes to his state’s health care system: state negotiation of drug prices, a requirement that every Californian have health insurance, more assistance to help middle-class Californians afford it and health care for undocumented immigrants up to age 26.

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Today is the Last Day to Sign Up for Covered California

Officials from state health exchange Covered California are ramping up efforts to enroll people in health coverage as the deadline to sign up looms.

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Newsome Diverges Sharply From Washington With Health Care Budget

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday unveiled his first state budget, one that leads California down a very different health care path than the one Washington has forged.

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Hospitals Now Required to Reveal Secret Prices Lists Online for Every Medical Procedure, Service

Hospitals across the country rang in the New Year with a federal mandate to reveal their once-secret master price lists, although it's unclear whether the new requirement will assist many patients or contain ever-rising health care costs.

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California Leaps to Obamacare’s Defense in Fight Pitting Blue States Against Red Ones

California is once again defending the Affordable Care Act, leading a coalition of Democratic states against a small army of Republican lawmakers seeking to undo the Obama administration’s signature health care law.

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Covered California Enrollee Fights Blue Shield Plan to Limit Out-of-State Care

Blue Shield of California is unfairly targeting hundreds of thousands of Covered California enrollees with a coverage change that would prevent them from getting routine care when they are working outside of California, one enrollee told The Sacramento Bee.

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Hospitals Must Now Post Their Prices Online

Hoping to empower consumers who are shouldering more and more of their health care costs each year, the federal government this year is requiring hospitals across the country to post their standard price lists on their websites.

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Insurers Blame Specialty Drug Costs for Rising Premiums. This Report from California Shows Why

Specialty drugs made up about 3% of prescriptions in California in 2017 but accounted for more than half of the prescription drug spending that year, according to new report that compiled drug spending from nine insurers in that state.

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