Also known as the Health for All Act, the legislation aims to provide access to health care coverage to undocumented individuals who are not covered under the Affordable Care Act. SB 4 would expand Medi-Cal to low-income undocumented individuals and create a private insurance exchange option for those with higher incomes.
A physician flanked by the California flag. (Illustration: Niyazz, via Shutterstock).While our state and nation continue to implement the Affordable Care Act, it is especially important that patients have access to a team of health care professionals who work together to achieve the best outcomes for their patients. Unfortunately, that is not always the case here in the Golden State.
Millions of Californians receive quality health care thanks to the Affordable Care Act and Medi-Cal. And though most would probably thank President Obama or the Governor for that, Peter Harbage, who passed away Tuesday at age 43, after a courageous fight with cancer, had a lot to do with it too. “Peter is the unsung architect of health care reform in the United States,” says Anthony Wright, Executive Director of Health Access, a health care consumer advocacy group.
Photo of Dominga Sarabia by Lily Dayton, design by Cathy Krizik (HealthyCal.org)California Health Report: An estimated 2.6 million undocumented California residents are explicitly barred by law from the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The legislation has been a huge boon for many Californians: More than 3 million previously uninsured Californians gained health insurance since the start of the ACA’s first enrollment period. Almost 30 percent of the remaining uninsured, however, are undocumented immigrants who are ineligible for both Medi-Cal and assistance through Covered California.
Three seats on the powerful board that governs California’s multibillion-dollar health insurance exchange are up for grabs, giving the Brown administration – whose allies already comprise a majority on the five-member board — an opportunity to name two new directors. Two seats held by appointees of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expired last week. A third became vacant following the resignation last month of Robert Ross, the president of the nonprofit California Endowment.
Two aspects of health care: A claim form and money,. (Photo: Zimmytws via Shutterstock)A high-stakes ballot measure going before voters Nov. 4 has divided California Democrats, with the state party and some of its most prominent politicians on opposite sides. The initiative, Proposition 45, would empower the state’s elected insurance commissioner to approve health insurance rates.
Consumers have been complaining this year that Covered California insurance plans have doctor’s networks that are too narrow. The doctors they want to see don’t accept the insurance, they say. While a relatively new problem for California’s upper- and middle-class residents, this situation has been a problem for the poor for decades.
OPINION: Occasionally, a patient can find the information on the individual insurer website, but the formularies are displayed differently with each plan, making it difficult to compare plans to each other. In addition, there is no way to compare out-of-pocket costs.
Two years after Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature dismantled California’s $5 billion-a-year redevelopment program, Brown wants to bring some elements back — but he’s offering less money, a different name and a change in local voters’ approval. The crux of Brown’s plan is to expand the reach of the rarely-used, little-known Infrastructure Finance Districts. The districts, or IFDs, have taxing authority and are created with voter approval. They function on property tax dollars and focus on highways, transit and sewer projects, libraries, parks and child care centers.
California, home to the largest number of older adults in the nation, would become the third state after Colorado and Montana to prohibit using sex as a means to differentiate the prices in long-term care policies — if the measure ultimately becomes law. “I term out in November… so this is my first and last opportunity — as an Assembly member anyway — to take this issue up,” said Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Davis. Her bill is AB 1553, introduced Jan. 27.