Category: Health Care Reform

America’s health care system is undergoing many changes – it’s hard for insurance professionals to keep updated let alone consumers. Here we make it easy and publish daily articles on the changes and challenges that health care reform has ahead.

Free health insurance easier to find for low-income Californians

Logan B.
Free Health Insurance

Access to the state’s Medi-Cal and Medicaid plans will be based exclusively on residents’ incomes. Low-income Californians will no longer be subjected to the asset test when enrolling in free health insurance through either Medi-Cal or Medicare. This was a component of the state budget, which recently received its approval. Instead of having to pass the asset test, the 2 million Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal and Medicare will have their eligibility determined exclusively by their income. This is the case for the millions of other participants in Medi-Cal and is…

Read More

Affordable Care Act challenge dismissed by Supreme Court

Marc
Affordable Care Act - Supreme Court

The justices turned down the Republican state-led challenge to the health care law. At the end of last week, the Supreme Court dismissed the challenge to the Affordable Care Act. This left the law intact, keeping millions of Americans’ health care coverage in place. The justices rejected the former Trump administration and Republican-led states’ effort to block the law. The challenge to the Affordable Care Act led by Republican states and the former Trump administration sought to have the justices block the law in its entirety. According to the Supreme…

Read More

Will the American Rescue Plan Make California Health insurance affordable?

Logan B.
California health insurance - US health money

Covered California is urging state residents to take a second look at prices, as many have fallen. The California health insurance exchange is asking uninsured state residents to take a second look at what is available to them, as the new American Rescue Plan has reduced the price of some options. The federal law could make it notably cheaper to purchase a health plan on Covered California. According to a new report by Californiahealthline.org, the American Rescue Plan (ARP) has the potential to bring California health insurance into the hands…

Read More

Health insurance costs are rising in part due to unhealthy Millennials

H. Cutner
Health insurance costs - Millennials

A recent Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Index points to medical claims in younger people. A recent Blue Closs Blue Shield Health Index medical claim study showed that health insurance costs are being driven upward by the frequency of claims from medical conditions among Millennials. Though still young, this generation has a range of conditions reducing quality of life and life expectancy. According to the study, one in every three Millennials has a medical condition that will reduce their quality of life and life expectancy. “Based on these findings, we’re…

Read More

California bill would create new dependent parent health plan regulations

Nordstrom
Dependent parent health plan - grandparents

As adult children care for aging family members, insurance law may adapt health care coverage. A new dependent parent health plan bill has been making California insurance news. The idea behind Assembly Bill 570 is to allow caregiver children to add their parents to their policies. Twelve percent of US parents with a child under 18 years are also caring for another adult. As the population ages, a growing number of families are taking care of older family members. The new dependent parent health plan bill would make it possible…

Read More

Online health insurance marketplaces reopen following Biden executive

Julie Campbell
Online health insurance -US President Joe Biden Signs Orders to Reopen Obamacare Enrollment, Review Trump Health Policies - YouTube

The new US president signed the executive order saying that he was undoing “damage” from Trump. US President Joe Biden signed an executive order at the end of last week reopening the online health insurance marketplaces for people without coverage through employers. This move restores access to the healthcare.gov insurance exchange from February 15 to May 15. According to President Biden, the order to open a new online health insurance marketplace window was meant to undo the “damage” his predecessor Donald Trump had done, said a Reuters report. This executive…

Read More

Nearly 3 in 10 Americans lost health insurance last year, says study

H. Cutner
Lost health insurance - person wearing mask looking distressed

A ValuePenguin study revealed that 29 percent lost their plans in 2020, and many remain uninsured. Twenty-nine percent of Americans lost health insurance coverage during 2020, say the results of a ValuePenguin healthcare study. Among those who did lose their coverage, more than half continue to be uninsured in 2021. It should be noted that the study was a limited one, involving only 2,000 participants. Therefore, the accuracy of its representation of nationwide trends has been called into question. That said, the research suggested that 45 percent of consumers seeking…

Read More