Supreme Court Will Hear Newest Challenge to ACA
The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hear the most serious challenge to the Affordable Care Act since the justices found it constitutional more than two years ago: a lawsuit targeting the federal subsidies that help millions of Americans buy health insurance. Read more...
Will Rate Regulation Return to Legislature?
What's next after Proposition 45? Will the subject surface again in the Legislature? California voters yesterday rejected the proposal to give the state insurance commissioner power to deny health insurance rate increases deemed excessive. Read more...
An Election Night Murder
Back in June, more than 60% of Californians supported it. But on Tuesday night, more than 60% of Californians voted against it. What went wrong with Proposition 45, the once popular rate-review ballot initiative? Here's a list of potential factors -- and it's hard to pick just one. Read more...
Fragile, Rural Population About to Move into Medi-Cal
Next month, state health officials will launch a transition of rural Medi-Cal beneficiaries into Medi-Cal managed care health plans. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program. The transition involves about 20,000 of the most frail and elderly segment of the rural Medi-Cal population -- seniors and persons with disabilities, known as SPDs. Read more...
GOP Wins Unlikely to Affect Medicaid
The status of states' Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act is unlikely to change substantially following the midterm elections on Tuesday, particularly given Republican victories in several gubernatorial elections, the New York Times' "The Upshot" reports. Read more...
Voters Pass Soda Tax in Berkeley, Not in San Francisco
On Tuesday, Berkeley residents voted to pass the country's first soda tax, while voters in San Francisco rejected a similar ballot measure, KQED's "State of Health" reports. Read more...
California, New York Efforts Highlight Shift in Health Data Exchange
A major source of funding for electronic health information exchange has historically been federal grants, such as those provided by the HITECH Act, which included, among other things, grants for the development of statewide HIE infrastructure. With this funding largely gone, the locus of electronic HIE activity has been shifting from the federal government to public -- and, increasingly, private -- health care stakeholders at the state and local level. Read more...
