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
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.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center estimates nearly 3.2 million Californians won’t have health insurance next year, the largest percentage of them immigrants who are living in the country illegally.
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.
“Low-income workers face significant practical challenges. They often have limited time because of multiple jobs, they may lack childcare, spend a lot of time commuting. And they’re worried about missing work, not just for the appointment but also if they have symptoms from the vaccine,” Lucia said.
About 3.2 million people in the state of nearly 40 million are projected to not have health insurance next year, according to the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Roughly 1.5 million are unauthorized immigrants, making them the largest uninsured group in the state.
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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