This week, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. announced a series of actions to strengthen access to affordable, quality health care coverage throughout the U.S. Building upon an executive order issued last year to strengthen Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the President issued an additional order this week directing federal agencies to review agency…
Read More »The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week released, on the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a new report highlighting the successes of the ACA and key health coverage gains made under the initiative. The “State of the ACA” report, published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services…
Read More »A new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) found that since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage provisions beginning in 2010, the uninsured rate among Black Americans under age 65 decreased from 20 percent in 2011 (approximately…
Read More »This week, Covered California’s Board of Directors announced the appointment of Jessica Altman as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Altman currently serves as the insurance commissioner for the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance where she is charged with regulating Pennsylvania’s insurance marketplace, protecting consumers, and ensuring their health insurance needs are met. Altman previously served…
Read More »A new study released by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) found that after a decade of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), coverage and health care access disparities persist among Californians. In 2020, more than 2.5 million California children, adolescents, and adults (ages 0-64) did not have health…
Read More »For the third time on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), leaving in place the landmark law’s broad provisions on health care access and coverage originally enacted by Congress in 2010. The case, California v. Texas, was initiated by a coalition of 18 states and two individuals,…
Read More »The Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP) recently issued its 2021 Regional Health Coverage Fact Sheets. Each year, ITUP releases “Coverage at a Glance” regional health coverage fact sheets for its 11 ITUP Regional Workgroup locations. This year, the ITUP Regional Health Coverage Fact Sheets included race/ethnicity data for each county including the county’s uninsured population….
Read More »This week, Governor Newsom announced that California opted into the federal COVID-19 Pharmacy Partnership, under which CVS and Walgreens will administer the Pfizer vaccine to residents and staff of long-term care facilities. CVS and Walgreens will first vaccinate staff and residents at nursing homes, before moving on to assisted living, residential care, and other long-term…
Read More »On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) heard oral arguments on California v. Texas, which seeks to strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Brought by several states, and led by Texas, the case argues that since Congress reduced the individual mandate penalty to zero in 2017, the mandate is now unconstitutional and therefore the…
Read More »This week, the Senate Health Committee convened an informational hearing entitled “The Affordable Care Act in Jeopardy: What does it mean for California?” bringing together several experts and consumers to discuss what would happen in California if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is struck down by the US Supreme Court. The hearing featured several panels…
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