Rate Shock in California!––The New Health Insurance Exchange Plans––Comparing Apples to Oranges to Grapefruit

I have to say I was surprised with the press reports last week that there wasn't "rate shock" in California when the California exchange offered preliminary information about their new plans and rates.

At least one prominent health actuarial group had predicted a 30% baseline increase in costs for California's new health insurance exchange plans under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare").

As

Read more »

State of California "Fearful" of Enforcing $1 Million Fine Against Wellpoint/Anthem Blue Cross for "Illegal" Health Insurance Policy Rescissions

Crazy as it sounds an AP story on Thursday reported that the California Department of Managed Care "didn't even try to enforce a million-dollar fine against health insurer Anthem Blue Cross because they feared they would be outgunned in court."Last year the department announced that it would fine the insurer for improperly rescinding individual heath insurance policies in the midst of the

Read more »

Comprehensive Health Care Reform and Massachusetts--Are We On Our Way To a Very Different Debate?

The Massachusetts health care reform law appears on its way to:Covering two-thirds of those who did not have health insurance on the day it was enacted--about 400,000 people by the end of 2009.Covering most of those who were uninsured in households with incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level--below which the plan pays all or most health insurance premiums.Offering health insurance plans

Read more »

California Health Reform Effort Fails--What Does It Mean?

With news that a California State Senate committee rejected Governor Schwarzenegger's plan by a vote of 7-1, efforts to achieve health care reform this year have all but ended in our biggest state.Governor Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Nunez almost accomplished the impossible with a complexly balanced compromise that would have gone a long way toward solving that state's uninsured

Read more »

California Insurers Lose a Big Court Case In the Health Insurance Policy Rescission Controversy

Here's one for a Harvard Business School case study: A few months before voters in the state are going to decide the future of your industry get into a losing battle about retroactively canceling sick peoples' health insurance policies.A unanimous California Appeals Court decision has decided that California health insurers have a responsibility to check the accuracy of applications for health

Read more »

A November Ballot Initiative Over California Health Reform Would Be The Biggest Thing Ever To Happen In The Debate

With news that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and the Democratic controlled General Assembly have agreed on a health reform proposal we may be on the cusp of a huge referendum on the Democratic version of health care reform.The next step is for the State Senate to approve the plan. The Assembly approved it earlier this month on a party-line vote with Republicans in opposition. The

Read more »