Health Care

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California Workers' Rights: A Manual of Job Rights, Protections and Remedies

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Nari Rhee

Medicaid Cuts—Including Work Documentation Requirements—Harm Older Adults

Rolling back Medicaid access through cuts and bureaucratic hurdles will have far-reaching and disproportionate impacts on older adults. In particular, the work documentation requirement poses an especially draconian barrier to older adults, given the steady dropoff in employment after age 50 due to deteriorating health, age discrimination, and increasing responsibility to provide care for aging family members.

Laurel Lucia,Miranda DietzandAlexis Manzanilla

The Importance of Comprehensive Health Benefits for All Low-Income Californians

California’s historic expansion of coverage to undocumented individuals has not only brought the state closer to universal coverage, but has also reduced racial disparities in health coverage. However, this progress is at risk due to a new state budget proposal that would curtail Medi-Cal benefits for certain immigrants, ahead of additional severe federal cuts to Medicaid being considered.

Laurel Lucia

California Could Lose Up to 217,000 Jobs if Congress Cuts Medicaid

Republicans are considering major cuts to Medicaid to offset tax cuts. Depending on the specific mechanisms and timing for cutting Medicaid, California could expect to see between $10 billion and $20 billion fewer federal dollars per year coming to Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. These federal cuts would lead to significant job loss in health care and other sectors.

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.

Laurel LuciaandMiranda Dietz

Comments to Office of Health Care Affordability on the Hospital Price Problem for Workers in Monterey County

These comments were submitted to the California Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) in advance of the Board’s meeting in Monterey County on August 28, 2024. The comments describe the data and research showing that Monterey County has among the highest hospital prices in the state and country.

Alexis ManzanillaandLaurel Lucia

Expanding Covered California for All by Ending Immigration Status-Based Exclusions

Blog post exploring the factors surrounding a proposal to expand Covered California to undocumented Californians by creating a “mirror marketplace.” This would give undocumented Californians, who are prevented by federal law from participating in Covered California, the ability to shop, compare, and enroll in health plans.

Miranda DietzandLaurel Lucia

Measuring Consumer Affordability is Integral to Achieving the Goals of the California Office of Health Care Affordability

Consumer health care affordability has deteriorated over the past two decades in California due to rising premiums along with increasingly common and increasingly large deductibles for job-based coverage. This report documents these trends and their implications for Californian’s health and financial well-being, and recommends how California’s new Office of Health Care Affordability can monitor consumer affordability metrics in order to ensure that consumers benefit from the office’s efforts to control growth in per capita health care spending.

Laurel Lucia,Miranda DietzandTynan Challenor

What can we afford? Considerations for aligning Office of Health Care Affordability spending target with Californians’ ability to afford increases

The California Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) will establish statewide and sectoral health care spending targets with the goal of achieving a more sustainable per capita rate of spending growth on health care provided by a range of health care entities. This policy brief will discuss the various economic indicators that can be used in setting the statewide target.

Laurel Lucia,Enrique Lopezlira,Ken JacobsandSavannah Hunter

Proposed health care minimum wage increase: State costs would be offset by reduced reliance on the public safety net by health workers and their families

In this brief we estimate the new costs to the state resulting from SB 525 as well as the savings it would generate through reductions in safety net program enrollment of affected workers and their family members.

Miranda Dietz,Srikanth KadiyalaandLaurel Lucia

Extending Covered California subsidies to DACA recipients would fill coverage gap for 40,000 Californians

In April, the Biden Administration announced a proposed rule that would allow an estimated 40,000 uninsured DACA recipients in California access to subsidized health coverage through Covered California. This fills an important gap in health coverage options, but it renders access to Covered California contingent on DACA status—which itself is at risk of being overturned by the courts.

Enrique LopezliraandKen Jacobs

Proposed health care minimum wage increase: What it would mean for workers, patients, and industry

This report shows that the proposed California Senate Bill No. 525 (SB 525), which would establish a new $25 per hour minimum wage for health care employees, has the potential to substantially improve conditions for low-wage health care workers that provide essential services to the state, ameliorate staffing shortages in the industry, and improve quality of care.