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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 Insurer Mergers Will Pressure Pharma Over High-Cost Drugs

As the nation’s biggest health insurers jockey for supremacy, drug makers should brace for added pressure because doctors are likely to face stingier reimbursement over the next few years.

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Assembly To Consider Bill Capping Out-of-Pocket Rx Drug Costs

The Assembly this month will consider a bill (AB 339) that aims to cap out-of-pocket costs for prescription medications, Modern Healthcare reports

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Woes Linger For State Health Insurance Exchange Enrollees

The woes haven’t ended for enrollees who had first-year sign-up troubles through the state’s health insurance exchange.

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Rx Drug Spending Down Among New Exchange Enrollees

New enrollees in the Affordable Care Act's exchanges in 2015 spent less on prescription drugs and tended to be younger than new enrollees last year, according to a report from pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts, Modern Healthcare reports.

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California Advocates Hail Coverage Of Children In State Illegally, Seek Inclusion of Adults

When Fabiola Ortiz heard California had granted health coverage to poor children lacking legal immigration status, she felt grateful. Since arriving in the U.S. illegally 12 years ago, she has taken her two youngest children to the doctor only for required school physicals and relied on home remedies for everything else.

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Special Session on Health Spending Opens

State lawmakers last week convened the first hearing of a governor-ordered legislative special session on health care funding.

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California Insurers Received $1.2B Under ACA Reinsurance Program

California insurers have received nearly $1.2 billion through the Affordable Care Act's reinsurance program, according to a Covered California analysis of a recent CMS report, Business Insurance reports (Geisel, Business Insurance, 7/6).

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Brown Signs $167.7B Budget With Few Line-Item Vetoes

On Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a $167.6 billion state budget that includes funding to expand Medi-Cal to undocumented children, as well as other health care implications, the Los Angeles Times‘ “PolitiCal” reports. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program. The budget will take effect July 1 (Megerian, “PolitiCal,” Los Angeles Times, 6/24). Background on Budget ...

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GOP Weighs Response to Supreme Court’s Federal Subsidies Ruling

After the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled to uphold Affordable Care Act subsidies to help U.S. residents purchase coverage through the federal exchange, the GOP could turn to budget reconciliation as part of its efforts to repeal the law, National Journalreports (Scott/Johnson, National Journal, 6/25). Background The subsidies were challenged in the case King v. ...

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California Senate Passes Vaccine Bill on Second Vote; Now Heads to Governor

SACRAMENTO — The controversial bill that would give California one of the country’s strictest vaccination laws headed on Monday to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, with supporters urging him to sign it and opponents promising to stand vigil around the clock to convince him to veto it. On Monday, a majority of the California state Senate ...

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