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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.

Health Care May Be Top Issue In Governor Race

After the contentious, sometimes-raucous first debate of this year’s primary election season, it became clear that issues like offshore oil drilling, affordable housing, President Trump’s tax changes, immigration and border control would likely not be the central themes of the campaign to succeed Jerry Brown as governor.

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Congress Delays Cadillac Tax Till 2022 And Medical Device Tax For Two Years

Almost no one got everything they wanted out of the Monday deal to reopen the government — except perhaps medical device companies, who managed to fend off an industry-wide excise tax before the first payments were due.

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Government Shutdown Ends, CHIP Funded for 6 Years

Congress brought an end to a three-day government shutdown on Monday as Senate Democrats buckled under pressure to adopt a short-term spending bill to fund government operations without first addressing the fate of young undocumented immigrants.

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California May Buck Congress With Its Own Health Insurance Requirement

With Congress ending the requirement that all Americans have health insurance, California leaders are preparing to counter that move by securing health care for as many residents as possible in a fortified state insurance exchange.

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Helping Employers Wade Through the Weeds of California’s Marijuana Legalization Law

On November 8, 2016, California voters passed Proposition 64, or the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which immediately made it legal for adults 21 years of age and older to possess and cultivate specific amounts of marijuana for recreational use. (Through a variety of legislative actions, this law and the existing California law pertaining to medicinal marijuana were combined, and the combination is now known as the Medical and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act.) As of January 1, 2018, California adults can now buy marijuana from dispensaries licensed by the state of California.  While several states have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes, only eight have legalized recreational marijuana, and only very recently.  In this brave new world, many employers...

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Single-Payer Debate Resurges in California Capitol, as Opposition From Health Providers Ramps Up

The political battle lines over single-payer healthcare in California are growing starker, with an alliance of doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners and other health providers ramping up their opposition to the proposal.

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California Nurses and Anthony Rendon are Still Sparring Over Single-Payer Bill

Time has not healed all wounds between Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and the California Nurses Association. Rendon, a Paramount Democrat, infuriated the nurses last June when he abruptly shelvedSenate Bill 562, the measure they sponsored to create a government-run universal health care system in California, calling it “woefully incomplete.”

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Signups for Individual Health Insurance Through Covered California Up 7 Percent

About 342,000 Californians have signed up for health insurance through Covered California since open enrollment began in November — up roughly 7 percent compared to this time last year, according to figures released by the agency Monday.

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Risky Business: Short-Term Health Plans Could Alter Insurance Landscape

Two years ago, Aaron LeBato of Katy, Texas, bought an 11-month, short-term health plan for himself, his wife and three children after getting dropped from an Affordable Care Act plan due to a payment system error. 

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GOP Looking at CHIP Funding, Cadillac Tax Delay for Averting Shutdown

With little hope of an immigration agreement this week, Republicans in Congress are looking to head off a government shutdown this weekend by pairing another stopgap spending measure with long-term funding for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, daring Democrats to vote no.

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