HealthCareForAmericaNow - California

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…