Health Care

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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.

Research & Publications

Miranda Dietz,Srikanth Kadiyala,Annie Rak, Sun-Yin Ho,Laurel Lucia,Dylan H. RobyandGerald F. Kominski

All 2.37 million Californians in the individual market will face higher premiums if Congress does not act by 2025

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) included additional federal subsidies to make health insurance more affordable in the individual market, but these expire at the end of 2025. If Congress does not extend the expanded subsidies and levels revert to those in the original Affordable Care Act, all 2.37 million Californians in the individual market—including those not receiving subsidies—would face higher health insurance premiums and be forced to choose between more expensive coverage, less generous coverage, or forgoing coverage all together and going uninsured.

Press Coverage

Times of San Diego

For the First Time, DACA Recipients Eligible to Enroll in Covered California Plans

Open enrollment season has begun statewide for people who need health insurance — and this year, even more Californians can get insured. Nearly 6 million people have received health insurance through Covered California since the healthcare exchange program first began in 2014. Currently, nearly 1.8 million are enrolled. This year, thanks to funding through the Inflation Reduction Act, health care is expected to be more accessible and affordable to Californians, thanks to increased and expanded financial aid that will be available in 2025.

KQED News

California Health Care Employers Now Required to Raise Minimum Pay

About 350,000 health care employees, most of them people of color and women, are projected to see an annual average increase of $6,400 in the first year of the policy, according to an analysis by the UC Berkeley Labor Center. In earlier estimates, the labor center calculated up to 426,000 people would be impacted, but that figure included workers at skilled nursing facilities who are currently not covered by the law, according to Laurel Lucia, who directs the center’s health care program.