We generated more than 5,000 calls to legislative offices - and the results of this tremendous effort speak for themselves!

On Tuesday, the legislature passed the following bills (the last day of the legislative session):

* AB2470(De La Torre) on Eliminating Rescissions
* SB890(Alquist), to Standardize Benefits to Allow for Better Comparisons of Plans
* SB1163(Leno), to Provide 60 Day Notice and Transparency on Rate Hikes

Bills past last week include:

* AB1602 (Perez) & SB900 (Alquist), to Create a New Health Insurance Exchange
* SB56 (Alquist), to Foster New Public Health Insurance Options
* AB1825 (De La Torre), to Phase-In Maternity Coverage as a Basic Benefit
* AB1600 (Beall), to Require Mental Health Parity in Health Coverage
* AB2244 (Feuer), to Limit Premiums for Children with Pre-existing Conditions
* SB1088 (Price), to Allow Young Adults up to Age 26 To Stay on Parental Coverage
* AB2042 (Feuer),to Limit Rate Hikes and Changes to Once a Year
* AB1503 (Lieu), to Prevent ER Doctor Overcharges for the Uninsured
* AB542 (Feuer), to Prevent Medi-Cal Payment for “Never Event” Medical Errors

(Source: Health Access WeBlog)

Only one important consumer protection bill remains - AB 2578 (Jones) - introducing important oversight and regulations for when insurance companies try to raise our rates!

Click here & share it today!

Your story will help show State legislators why we need to pass critical State implementation and consumer protection bills here in California. Currently, there are several pieces of legislation that could go to a floor vote in the next week or so.

See below for information on what these bills are and how they’ll help protect California consumers and make our health care system stronger!

Those of particular concern in the State Assembly:

• AB2244 (Feuer): Progressively limits how much private insurers can charge families with children under 19 with so-called “pre-existing conditions” between now and 2014 - when Federal provisions prohibiting all premium differences kick-in.
• AB2578 (Jones): Requires approval from the Department of Managed Health Care OR Department of Insurance whenever private insurance companies attempt to increase the amount of premiums, co-payments, coinsurance, deductibles or other charges under a health plan.
• AB1602 (Perez): Creates the California Cooperative Health Insurance Purchasing Exchange (Cal-CHIPE) and implements a variety of other important provisions of the national health care reform law - including extensions allowing children to be covered by their parents’ plans until age 26.

Those of particular concern in the State Senate:

• SB890 (Alquist & Steinberg): Makes purchasing health plans on the individual market easier by implementing many of the consumer protections in the Federal health care reform law early and includes a strong medical loss ratio so more premium dollars are going to patient care (instead of profits!).
• SB900 (Alquist & Steinberg): Establishes the California Health Insurance Exchange and creates the California Health Insurance Exchange Fund and enables the Exchange to use its bargaining power to negotiate better prices and values for consumers in the exchange.
• SB1163 (Leno): Rate Reviews - Would require health plans to provide, in writing, specific reasons for denial of coverage or for charging higher than the standard rates for coverage.

Your stories are the most powerful examples of why we need to pass these vital State implementation bills that improve insurance industry regulations! Here in California, with more than 7 million people uninsured - and millions more inadequately insured under “junk” policy plans - we cannot let up and let opponents defeat this critical opportunity to make the most of the new health law and improve our healthcare here in California!

If you’ve ever:

• Purchased “junk” insurance, or realized your insurance plan didn’t cover the things you needed;
• Paid high out-of-pocket costs;
• Were hit with high rate increases;
• Were hit with high out-of-network charges;
• Had your child denied care due to “pre-existing conditions”

Click here to share your story today!

Signed by President Johnson on July 30, 1965 - Medicare remains one of the most popular health plans in the country. Currently, there are nearly 5 million California seniors enrolled in the program. Best of all, thanks to provisions in the new health care law, the Medicare program will become significantly better as a result of benefits that make it more efficient and sustainable while also helping to make prescription medicine more affordable for seniors and offering comprehensive preventive care coverage for FREE.

Want to get involved? Join us in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco and help us celebrate Medicare and the new health law!

Click here to RSVP for a celebration event in YOUR city!

There’s been a lot of talk about the new health care law. And a lot of misinformation.

Here’s what the new will do:

• Stop the abuses of big insurance, like denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
• Give you the peace of mind of knowing that you’ll have good health coverage you can afford, even if you want to retire early, start a small business or you lose your job.
• Give members of Congress the same choices in coverage as tens of millions of Americans.
• Make health coverage more affordable for seniors on Medicare and small businesses.

The benefits of the new law start in 2010. Highlights include:

• Insurance companies will not be able to deny children coverage for pre-existing conditions or cancel coverage because a person has been treated in the past.
• The Medicare prescription drug donut hole will be reduced; seniors who fall into the donut hole will get $250 back.
• Children will be able to stay on their parent’s health coverage until they turn 26.
• Small businesses will get a 35% tax credit to help pay for their employees’ coverage.

Those who advocate repeal this year need to explain to the people and businesses that will have these specific benefits why they want to take them away.

In 2014, when the law if fully in place:

• Insurance companies won’t be able to deny anyone coverage for pre-existing coverage or place limits on annual or lifetime payments for covered benefits.
• People who don’t get health coverage at work will choose among health insurance plans in a new marketplace. The amount that a person will pay will be based on their income, on a sliding scale, so coverage will be affordable.
• Members of Congress will get the same choices of coverage as other people in the new marketplace.
• The Medicare prescription drug “donut hole” will continue to shrink until it is totally eliminated, helping millions of seniors with lower drug costs.

Members of Congress who voted for reform stood up against the insurance companies, their misleading ads, 1,700 lobbyists and campaign cash and voted to take our side.

It’s time to move beyond political games and fully realize the promise of reform - quality, affordable health care for all.

Here in California, there are several critical state implementation bills that will ensure that Californians get the most out of the new health care law. Many of these also call for increased oversight of the insurance industry, including:

• AB 2578 (Jones) - Would require approval by the Department of Managed Health Care OR the Department of Insurance whenever insurance companies attempt to raise premiums, co-payments, coinsurance, deductibles or other charges under a health plan.
• SB 1163 (Leno) - Would require health plans to provide, in writing, specific reasons for denial of coverage or for charging higher than standard rates of coverage.
• AB 2042 (Feuer) - Would prohibit insurers and HMOs from changing or increasing premiums, cost sharing or benefits more than once a year.

But even now that health reform is the law of the land, insurance industry giants like Anthem Blue Cross and Aetna are still trying to bleed hard-working Californians dry by unjustly and erroneously raising premiums. Perhaps most shocking is the arrogance in which these companies attempt to impose rate increases on California consumers in the individual market when their math is plagued with miscalculations and accounting errors.

But you can help end this, and other insurance industry abuses, by signing the HCAN-CA Petition today URGING State legislators to support these vital state implementation bills and protect California consumers!

Click here to sign today!

All four bills passed on Tuesday will help in the implementation of health care reform by setting the stage for California to move forward with the strongest provisions contained in the law.

But there are still two bills that need to be passed before Friday (June 4) which aim to introduce stronger rate regulation and oversight of the private insurance industry in California: AB2578 (Jones) and SB1163 (Leno).

Word has it that the private insurance industry is desperately trying to prevent the passing of these two bills that would improve protections for California consumers against attempts by the private insurance industry to raise our premiums and deny us coverage.

For more info on these bills, check out today’s post on the Health Acess weblog.

There’s still time to take action! So far, hundreds of Californians have already called their legislators in the State Assembly and State Senate, urging them to support these critical bills. With the deadline only a couple of days away, it’s critical that we get on the phone now and call on our leaders to VOTE YES on these two remaining bills!

Click here to get started and take action NOW!

There were moments during the long national debate on health health reform when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was critical of the legislation being considered in Washington. That has now changed, and it’s a politically significant shift.

The Republican governor of the largest state in the Union came out forcefully yesterday in favor of marshaling all state resources to quickly and effectively implement federal reform, starting with the high risk pool next month. He promised to call a special session of the legislature if necessary to pass enabling legislation as the state and the country move ahead with health reform implementation.

For those of us in attendance, it was 2007 all over again: here was the governor talking about his positive experience with universal health care in Austria and making a compelling case that health care reform is neither a Democratic or a Republican issue.  “I am a public servant, not a party servant,” he said, when asked whether his decision not to join some fellow Republican governors in filing lawsuits to block national reform could drive a wedge between him and the rest of the Republican party.

He also responded directly to the new concerns that many Republicans are now expressing about the individual mandate.  Gov. Schwarzenegger explained that when people do not have insurance, they are actaully forcing others to pay for their health care when they go to the hospital.  Better, he suggested, for people to be required to have insurance so that they do not shift the costs and make the rest of society subsidize them.

The governor was joined by Kim Belshe, the Secretary of the California Department of Health and Human Services and the person the governor has designated to quarterback the state’s implementation effort.  Sec. Belshe provided a great deal of information in response to questions about, in particular, the implementation of the state’s new high risk pool.  She explained that the pools are the main topic of conversation in the weekly calls with the staff of the federal Department of Health and Human Services and explained how California’s new pool will exist alongside its current pool.

Secretary Belshe will be speaking in greater detail about reform implementation, specifically about how to get Californians a better bang for their healthcare buck at an event that we are hosting in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 5th.  For more information about this event and to RSVP, click here.

California consumers got some relief today. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that Anthem Blue Cross of California has withdrawn their rate filings, after a review of an independent actuary has revealed various problems, including arithmetic errors and double-counting.

The rate hikes of up to 39% were controversial, the subject of a white-hot presidential spotlight during the health reform debate.

It’s great that California ratepayers got a reprieve from outrageous rate hikes by Anthem Blue Cross of California.

But more than rate relief, this withdrawal of the rate hike proposals show why we need regulators to have active oversight over the insurance industry. This review was done under existing law, which provided very limited authority, and it was still able to find basic problems in arithmetic and double-counting.

Oversight and regulation matter. This shows why more extensive oversight is needed, some of which is in the federal health reform that passed, and additional rate review proposals that are pending at both the state and federal levels.

Federal health reform (and pending state implementation) would create health insurance exchanges, where people buying coverage as individuals could join and benefit from group purchasing to negotiate for better prices and value. There are also pending proposals at both the state and federal levels to have rate review and approval authority, especially in the period before 2014 when the exchange come into full effect.
* At the federal level, California Senator Feinstein has a proposal to regulate rates at the federal level, especially for states that don’t have a rate review process.
* California is one of those states that does not have rate review, but there are pending bills. Assemblyman Dave Jones has a rate approval bill, AB2578. State Senator Mark Leno has a bill for insurers to disclose their rate methodology, SB1163.

We need these continued reforms, so when Anthem Blue Cross resubmits rate hike proposals, there’s a process to properly review them.

HCAN-California’s lead state partner, Health Access, reported Wednesday that the California Senate Health Committee approved a pair of bills authored by Senate Health Committee Chair Elaine Alquist and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg setting up a new insurance exchange to help expand health care coverage for Californians.

• SB 900 (Alquist/Steinberg) sets up a new insurance exchange that actively uses its negotiating power to seek out the best deals for individual and small group policyholders.
• SB 890 (Alquist/Steinberg) standardizes and simplifies the health insurance market so that consumers better understand their choices and can make apples-to-apples comparisons.

In introducing her bill, Senator Alquist said, “This establishes the exchange as an active purchaser that will try to get the best possible deal for consumers shopping for individual policies.” She said the exchange would be administered by a board of legislative and gubernatorial appointees that would meet in public every two months. The board will be held accountable for its decisions, Alquist said.

Health Access advocate Beth Capell said it is estimated that between three and nine million Californians would get coverage through the exchange. The exchange will ensure that people are charged for health insurance on a sliding scale, so those who make less will be charged less, and those with higher incomes will pay prices according to a sliding scale as well. It is envisioned that this fundamental building block of health reform in California would be consumer-friendly enough to attract small businesses into the exchange.

Read more at the Health Access blog…