AG vows to fight ACA court ruling

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has vowed to fight a federal court's ruling that penalties for not having health insurance are unconstitutional. The ruling came via a lawsuit designed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The Dec. 18 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the so-called individual mandate previously used by Obamacare was an unconstitutional tax. President Trump succeeded in removing the ... (More)

Individual mandate back in Calif.

Californians again face a tax penalty for not having health insurance. Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, signed into law the Legislature's plan to reintroduce a so-called individual mandate, effective Jan. 1, 2020. Californians are required to have "minimal essential" health coverage. Led by President Trump, the federal government in 2017 killed the Obamacare penalty, effective with this tax year. The new state penalty is designed to ... (More)

342,000 newbies for Covered Cal

About 342,000 new consumers have signed up for health insurance via Covered California as of Jan. 21. The state Obamacare operation said the pace of new sign-ups for the 2018 open enrollment period is running well ahead of last year, despite the political uncertainty about federal health-care policy. More than 1.2 million current Covered California customers have renewed for the year. Open enrollment continues through Jan. ... (More)

Tax-credit jeopardy for 24,000

An error by Covered California has left about 24,000 policy holders at risk of losing their federal tax credits in January if they don't give the state health insurance exchange permission to verify their income. Covered California is engaged in a last-minute scramble to reach those individuals and families before the end of the month, spokeswoman Lizelda Lopez said. For policy holders who don't give the agency their consent by ... (More)

2 more days for Obamacare signup

The window for health care coverage to begin Jan. 1 has been extended by two days, to Dec. 17, Covered California announced. The move came Tuesday night, almost immediately after the federal Obamacare website announced its own extension. Covered California said agents still were "processing thousands of applications" as the Dec. 15 deadline loomed. Consumers also were complaining about failed access to the Covered California web ... (More)