On Wednesday, a U.S. District Court Judge in the District of Columbia issued a dual-ruling, striking down Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky. Judge James Boasberg determined that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) failed to adequately consider impacts of work requirements, writing, “The Court cannot concur that the Medicaid Act…
Read More »The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) this month released a report on emergency department (ED) use in California, analyzing demographics, trends, and the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The report assesses ED use from 2005 to 2016 with a particular focus on rates of ED use following ACA expansion that occurred in…
Read More »On Thursday, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released an analysis of Governor Gavin Newsom’s FY 2019-20 budget proposals related to individual health insurance market affordability. Citing ongoing legislative and public interest and concern related to healthcare costs, access, and affordability of individual market coverage, the LAO explores two key policy proposals by the Newsom…
Read More »Covered California late last week released an extensive report entitled, “Options to Improve Affordability in California’s Individual Health Insurance Mandate,” which details policy options to lawmakers on ways to enhance the Affordable Care Act (ACA), lower costs for consumers, and improve coverage options. The report was prepared with the input of leading economists and stakeholders…
Read More »On Wednesday, Covered California released its open enrollment figures for 2019 coverage, finding that overall enrollment held steady with more than 1.5 million consumers selecting a health plan. There was a 7.5 percent increase in the number of existing consumers renewing their coverage, but a 23.7 percent decrease in the number of new consumers signing…
Read More »U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor on Sunday issued a stay on his December ruling, allowing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to stand while his judgement undergoes an appeal. Recall, last month Judge O’Connor of Texas struck down the ACA on the grounds that the individual health insurance mandate is unconstitutional and the remaining ACA…
Read More »The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Council on Criminal Justice and Behavioral Health (CCJBH) recently released a report examining patterns of health care service access and utilization among individuals formerly incarcerated in California state prisons. The report finds that in 2012 (prior to Medi-Cal expansion) seven percent of CDCR’s formerly incarcerated individuals received…
Read More »Last Friday, Texas Federal District Court Judge Reed O’Connor struck down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the grounds that the individual health insurance mandate is unconstitutional and the remaining ACA provisions cannot stand without the individual mandate. The issue at hand was whether the ACA’s individual mandate still required Americans to obtain health insurance…
Read More »On Tuesday, Covered California announced that 90,500 new consumers signed up for 2019 coverage as of November 30. These figures represent more than an 11 percent drop in enrollment compared to this time last year when there were roughly 102,000 new consumers signed up for coverage. The decrease in Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollment at…
Read More »This week, researchers at UCLA and UC Berkeley released a new study that projects hundreds of thousands more Californians could become uninsured due to federal changes to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate penalty. Recall, the ACA’s individual insurance coverage mandate tax penalty will be repealed beginning in 2019 as part of the sweeping…
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