If the American Health Care Act ultimately becomes law, states will have the option to once again let insurers on the individual market charge those with preexisting conditions more than healthy people. Among the more contentious pieces of the AHCA, which the House of Representatives passed narrowly on Thursday, is a provision allowing states to request waivers to rules otherwise forbidding higher premiums based on a person’s health status. To get a waiver, states would have to explain how their approach would reduce premium growth and increase enrollment or competition; a late amendment to the bill added $8 billion to help defray higher costs to individuals with health conditions.

You may have read the California State Senate Health Committee recently approved Senate Bill (S.B.) 562, a measure that would create a single-payer health care system in the Golden State. It will next be considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee – where it is sure to face tough questions about funding for the sweeping overhaul of the health insurance system in California.

With a deadline looming, California’s health exchange and a major insurer pressed Republican leaders in Washington to clear up confusion over their commitment to key provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Premiums for health plans sold on Covered California, the insurance exchange created under the Affordable Care Act, could spike nearly 50 percent if the federal government stops enforcing two of the law’s key provisions that have been put in question under President Trump, according to a new analysis by Covered California and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

President Donald Trump said Monday the Republican health-care bill being negotiated in Congress ultimately will protect Americans with pre-existing conditions as well as Obamacare does.

When California health insurance companies begin setting 2018 rates next week, they’ll be able to offer two different projections without committing to either one.