The Labor Center’s health care research aims to inform federal, state, and local policymaking to improve access to health coverage and make health care more affordable for workers and their families. Our research especially examines policy impacts for California low-income and immigrant working families and communities of color. Many of our publications include projections from the California Simulation of Insurance Markets (CalSIM) model, jointly developed with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Our factsheet for calculating Modified Adjusted Gross Income under the Affordable Care Act is available here.
Who is and isn’t insured, coverage affordability, job-based health coverage, the ACA, Covered CA, and Medi-Cal.
Affordability of coverage and care, underlying cost trends, and solutions.
Access to health coverage for immigrant families, undocumented Californians, and those with DACA.
California Simulation of Insurance Markets model projections, reports, and methodology.
This blog post focuses on one policy idea currently being considered by state policymakers to address rising health care costs – creating an Office of Health Care Affordability.
The American Rescue Plan substantially increases premium subsidies for coverage purchased through health insurance exchanges like Covered California. We project that these subsidies will help over 1.6 million Californians, including 151,000 individual market enrollees who will qualify for subsidies for the first time and 135,000 uninsured people who will become insured.
Even after the American Rescue Plan (ARP) substantially increases premium subsidies for health insurance coverage purchased through Covered California, large inequities remain in who has access to affordable coverage. Nearly 3.2 million Californians will remain uninsured in 2022, or about 9.5% of the population age 0-64, according to our projections. The highest uninsured rates will be among undocumented Californians (65%) and those eligible only for insurance through Covered California (28%).
Under the Affordable Care Act, eligibility for income-based Medicaid and subsidized health insurance through the Marketplaces is calculated using a household’s Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). The Affordable Care Act definition of MAGI under the Internal Revenue Code and federal Medicaid regulations is shown below.
Testimony from Assembly hearing on California’s current health care system.
April 13, 2021
American Rescue Plan Improvements to Covered California Affordability: Who Gains?
April 13, 2021
Undocumented Californians Projected to Remain the Largest Group of Uninsured in the State in 2022
October 30, 2020
VIDEO: California Assembly Committee on Health Care Affordability: How to Control Costs in California
August 12, 2020
Economic and Health Benefits of a PPE Stockpile
The University of California Berkeley Labor Center predicts more than 3 million people won’t have health insurance in California next year, 65% of them people who are undocumented.
The University of California Berkeley Labor Center projects “Nearly 3.2 million Californians will remain uninsured in 2022.
“Folks who are under age 26 who are low-income and undocumented can get full scope medical coverage through the state and this expands that to be 50 and above,” Dietz explained. “But, as you can imagine that still leaves a significant number of Californians ages 26 to 49 who are low-income and documented who are without insurance coverage.”
“Even with the additional subsidies that are available through the rescue plan for coverage through Covered California, there’s a lot of folks who just can’t find the space in their budget to pay for those premiums or are worried about the deductible out-of-pocket costs,” Miranda Dietz said.
You may be able to stay on COBRA if you can afford the premiums, although keep in mind that there’s usually an 18-month limit to this option, said Laurel Lucia, director of the health-care program at the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education.
Laurel Lucia
Director, Health Care Program
Ken Jacobs
Labor Center Chair
Miranda Dietz
Research and Policy Associate
Tynan Challenor
Research and Policy Assistant
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