06/01/2010
This week, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care reform legislation recently passed by the US Congress officially comes home to California. As many as 20 bills implementing that Act will be introduced by the California legislature this week.
To begin with, an insurance exchange will be established allowing people to compare and purchase health insurance polices and companies via a website. An exchange of sorts already exists for Medicare Part D Drug coverage. However, the new exchange website would also help people determine whether they are eligible for Medi-Cal since those requirements will be changing as well.
In other legislation, health insurers will be prohibited from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Massachusetts had passed similar laws in 2006 and since their implementation, health insurance rates there have risen to the highest in the country. To mitigate this, Dave Jones, Democrat Assemblyman from Sacramento is introducing AB 2578 which would require insurance companies to apply for approval for rate increases to the California Department of Insurance. This goes beyond U.S. mandated requirements. Other legislation will penalize insurance companies for denying coverage to families with children, eliminate annual and lifetime limits on health care coverage and allow children to remain covered by their parents’ insurance until they’re 26.
People wondering when all this will be passed and implemented can look to Gov. Schwarzenegger who has supported the U.S. health reform efforts from the beginning and is working with the CA legislature to craft the necessary legislation and move it forward. Although it won’t be fully implemented before 2014, he wants the exchange created before he leaves office in January. Newly elected state legislators may change the details of these bills, however, especially those that go beyond the federal mandates.
The main health care bills being considered by the Assembly and Senate this week are AB1595, AB1600, AB1602, AB1825, AB1887, AB2244, AB2470, AB2477, AB2578, SB890, SB900, SB1088 and SB1163.
http://www.assembly.ca.gov http://www.senate.ca.gov