New enrollments in Covered California plunged by almost 24 percent for the current year, a fall that had been both feared and expected. "The federal removal of the individual mandate penalty appears to have had a substantial impact on the number of new consumers signing up for coverage," Covered California chief Peter Lee said. Nonetheless, the state Obamacare operation finished its open enrollment for 2019 with 1.5 million plan ... (More)
Newsom puts health care first
January 8, 2019 Leave a Comment
New California Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing significant support for the Affordable Care Act at the state level, with increased levels of subsidies for consumers and a return of the "individual mandate" for health coverage. Newsom's plan would hike the size of subsidies for those who already receive them, and make California the first state to make subsidies available to middle-income families. "No state has more at stake on the ... (More)
State uninsured rate at 7.2% low
September 12, 2018 Leave a Comment
California’s uninsured rate for health insurance fell to a record low of 7.2 percent during 2017. That's a decline of 10 percentage points from the pre-Affordable Care Act rate of 17.2 percent, according to numbers out Sept. 12 from the U.S. Census Bureau. California reported the largest decrease of any state over that time period. The report showed that 3.7 million Californians gained health insurance coverage since 2013. Covered ... (More)
Covered Cal: Rates will rise 8.7%
July 20, 2018 Leave a Comment
The inevitable rates increases are in for California's private health insurance operation and the news is good, sort of. Covered California said rates will rise an average of 8.7 percent for 2019. That's less than the dire projections for most of the country, and follows two straight years of double-digit premium-rate hikes in California. The state Obamacare operation termed the increase "a modest rate change for 2019." That's ... (More)
‘Risk adjustment’ payouts frozen
July 11, 2018 Leave a Comment
Health insurers and Covered California officials are facing another curveball from the Trump administration on the Affordable Care Act that could rattle the insurance market. In early July, Seema Verma, administrator for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said she was suspending a $10 billion program that helps stabilize the insurance markets created under the health law. She said the "risk adjustment" ... (More)
Recent Comments