Posts Tagged: insurance
News
On Wednesday, May 14, Capitol Weekly hosted “California’s Insurance Crisis,” its first in-person gathering of the year and second conference of 2025. Held at the University of California Student and Policy Center, the event featured three panels and a keynote address from the California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. Discussions ranged from the overall state of the insurance industry to the impact of the Los Angeles wildfires and the path forward.
Opinion
OPINION – California’s insurance market is at a crossroads. With massive increases in disaster costs and a regulatory environment that does not readily allow carriers to increase rates to match the risk involved in insuring massive portions of our state, it is clear that something needs to change to fix a broken insurance market.
News
In August, the Nonprofit Insurance Alliance, which insured 90 percent of the 220 private foster agencies in California, announced that it would not renew coverage of the organizations. Now, these agencies are seeking $47 million from the state budget.
News
An arcane but crucial subdivision of California’s foster care system may be teetering on the edge of failure because of what appears to be the actions of one vital insurance carrier that took a gamble on a child abuse case and lost big time.
Opinion
OPINION – Patients rely on the quality care services provided by pharmacists and pharmacies. On behalf of pharmacies and the patients for whom we provide care, I urge Governor Newsom to sign SB 966, by Senator Scott Wiener, District 11, encompassing San Francisco and parts of San Mateo County.
Obituary
As he became a fixture in Sacramento’s Capitol community during a 36-year career working on insurance and finance issues in the California Legislature, State executive agencies and the private sector, Steven M. Suchil had a simple formula for success. “To be effective,” he said, “your word has to be your bond.”
Capitol Briefs
Capitol Briefs: Budgets, insurance and police dogs, oh my! It’s all in the new edition of Capitol Briefs.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Since it’s a short holiday week, we’re just doing a quick Worst Week – back to our regular episodes next week!
Opinion
OPINION – I see it all the time in my practice— prior authorization used to be required for only expensive, elective or new procedures, but it is now required for some of the most basic prescription drugs. And the data bears out what physicians are seeing, because while frequency rates of prior authorization denials in the commercial market remains mostly secret, we know that where we do have information – in the Medicaid and Medicare markets – the data paints a worrying picture.
Opinion
OPINION – Across California, some of our most vulnerable neighbors remain unaware that they need to take action to keep their health care. This isn’t a small group: nearly 16 million Californians are enrolled in Medi-Cal, and about 75% of this group must submit the information requested in their renewal packet or they could be disenrolled – that’s a total of almost 12 million people.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. Photo by Ellie Appleby, Capitol Weekly. 
