California Health In Individual Insurance

TRACY — A coalition of local organizations in support of universal health care will be staging a rally in front of the post office today.

The demonstration is intended to raise awareness for Senate Bill 840, the California Health Insurance Reliability Act, which would provide universal health coverage for every resident of the state, regardless of their ability to pay.

Today's event is being organized by the San Joaquin Coalition for Universal Health Care, as part of the statewide "365 Day One Care Now Campaign."

The goal is that each day, one community in

California will host an educational/informational activity to raise awareness and offer solutions for the skyrocketing costs of health care.

According to One Care Now, the bill would "create one plan and one public trust fund which would pay all health care bills and collect all the monies already being spent on health care and insurance plans."

If enacted, the bill would "replace all health premiums, taxes, deductibles and co-payments now paid by employers, employees and individuals with one affordable premium."

The organization states that more than 5 million Californians have no insurance at any time during the year, with an additional 2 million lacking insurance for part of the year.

Blue Cross of California Improperly Canceled Health Insurance ...

Blue Cross of California improperly canceled individual health insurance policies after some members became pregnant or sought medical treatment for chronic conditions, an investigation by the California Department of Managed Health Care has concluded, the Los Angeles Times reports. DMHC officials on Thursday informed Blue Cross of their intent to file an accusation against the company and issue a $1 million fine in the case. Under California law, health insurers must prove that members intentionally misrepresented their medical histories on policy applications to cancel policies. State investigators reviewed 90 cases from 2004 to 2006 in which Blue Cross canceled individual health insurance policies and found the company had violated the law in each case. According to state investigators, Blue Cross used computer programs and maintained a department to review the policies of members with chronic illnesses and women who became pregnant to consider cancellation.

Blue Cross of California Keeps Promise to Members: Enhanced ...

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross of California (Blue Cross), through its affiliate BC Life & Health Insurance company, is now offering new health plan options for employers and individuals that will change the way consumers think about health care, helping them to lead healthier lives while also helping them gain control over the rising cost of care. These new consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) products and services are now available to large and small businesses as well as individuals. Previously, these products were offered only to national employers' members. "Our customers who choose these consumer-driven products will have new opportunities to lead healthier lives," said Blue Cross president Brian A. Sassi. "Our suite of Lumenos CDHP products puts consumers in control of their health care dollars and offers them an incentive to spend wisely and demand better health care quality and value." Blue Cross will offer the following core CDHP products: -- Lumenos Health Reimbursement Account -- Lumenos Health Savings Account -- Lumenos Health Incentive Account -- Lumenos Health Incentive Account Plus Consumers who choose Lumenos products will be eligible for extensive preventive care and personal health coaching, as well as smoking cessation and weight management programs.

ERISA and Arnold's health plan: Poizner's lawyers "are looking at ...

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner called a little while ago to talk about the huge mess with the State Compensation Insurance Fund. After a while, I got to shift the topic to my white whale: the governor's health insurance plan and its (non)compliance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the 1974 federal law which bans states from telling companies which offer benefits what those benefits must entail. In nearly three months of interviews, Nexis hunts and Googling, this is what I have learned:

3) No court ruling since 1974 has undercut the core premise of ERISA, which is that multistate companies should be able to offer the same benefits nationwide and not be undercut by the dictates of 50 individual state legislatures.

Support for universal health care gains traction

As a policy idea, universal health care has taken huge leaps - from being generally disregarded to being widely popular in a short amount of time.

Several years ago, few politicians, academics, industry experts and newspaper columnists openly called for universal health care. Back then, they debated smaller steps to gradually reduce the uninsured population, betting that a pitch for universal coverage would be politically unpalatable.

Supporters say universal coverage could lower medical prices and alleviate the cost concerns of employers because doctors and hospitals would face much less uncompensated care, or bad debt.