August 04, 2020

Column: California is still showing how to make Obamacare work, even with COVID-19

Amid the patchwork of state-level approaches to healthcare reform, California has always stood out for its all-in embrace of the Affordable Care Act.

June 27, 2020

Obamacare Faces Unprecedented Test as Economy Sinks

The Affordable Care Act, the landmark health law that has been a subject of caustic debate for more than a decade, is being tested as never before, as millions of Americans lose their jobs and medical coverage in the midst of the nation’s gravest health crisis in a century. The law is offering a vast majority of newly unemployed people a path to stopgap health coverage, providing a cushion that did not exist during the last crushing recession — or ever before.

May 25, 2020

Coronavirus widens healthcare divide between red states and blue states

BAKERSFIELD — Jenny Morones and Courtney Marrs are both working mothers. Both labor to raise three children on low incomes. Both fled abusive relationships. But because Morones lives in California — a state that expanded its safety net through the Affordable Care Act — she has health coverage. It protected her from financial ruin last year when a severe infection put her in the hospital.

May 13, 2020

Coronavirus impact: Millions have lost jobs and health insurance; Here's how to regain coverage in California

As unemployment is skyrocketing, so is the number of Americans losing their job-based health insurance. During the pandemic, health coverage is perhaps more important than ever. It's another one of our focuses as we tell stories to build a better Bay Area. Between March 1st and May 2nd of this year, nearly 78 million people in the U.S. lived in a family in which someone lost a job.

March 13, 2020

Column: How California made Obamacare work

California’s nation-leading embrace of the Affordable Care Act began with a Republican governor. Arnold Schwarzenegger had been trying since 2007 to create a universal healthcare program for the state. He had reached an agreement with then-Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) to impose an individual mandate — a requirement that almost all Californians carry health insurance — while providing subsidies for low-income residents.

March 06, 2020

California shows how to build on the ACA

As we near the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, our country faces two divergent paths to address health care cost and affordability. One road includes federal actions that not only undermine the ACA but threaten to wipe out the law as it goes back to the U.S. Supreme Court in the fall. In California, we have taken a different path to protect and build on the ACA. The results of these differing strategies are becoming increasingly clear and are being felt by millions of people.

November 08, 2019

Editorial: Health insurance reform is real in California, not in Washington, D.C.

Open-enrollment season is now underway for health insurance plans across the country, which means many Americans will be receiving unpleasant news about how much more their coverage will cost in the coming year. But for one group of consumers, premiums will actually go down for the second straight year.

September 12, 2019

More Californians got health insurance annually over 4 years. Here’s why the rate stalled

California has seen its rate of uninsured residents drop every year since the state’s affordable care marketplace, Covered California, began offering insurance policies, but 2018 was the exception. The rate stalled last year at 7.2 percent, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, despite the fact that taxpayers were still subject to the individual mandate penalty on their tax returns. Nationally, the rate of uninsured rose to 8.5 percent from 7.9 percent.

September 30, 2019

With the Affordable Care Act’s future in doubt, evidence grows that it has saved lives

Such findings are part of an emerging mosaic of evidence that, nearly a decade after it became one of the most polarizing health-care laws in U.S. history, the ACA is making some Americans healthier — and less likely to die.

August 16, 2019

Column: California shows all states how to protect patients from Trump’s attacks on Obamacare

Covered California, the state’s Affordable Care Act exchange, announced some good news a few weeks ago.

May 15, 2019

Open Forum: Trump abolished the health care mandate. California needs to restore it.

Once again, we are hearing the threat to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act as distant thunder rumbling at the federal level. The story in California is much different, however, as Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature are working to put our state on the path to universal coverage. One element includes bringing back the individual mandate penalty to individuals who can afford health insurance but do not to buy it.

April 24, 2019

KFF Health Tracking Poll - April 2019: Surprise Medical Bills and Public's View of the Supreme Court and Continuing Protections for People With Pre-Existing Conditions

The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions continue to weigh heavily on the minds of Americans, especially in light of the ongoing legal battle on the future of the ACA. The majority of the public say they do not want to see the Supreme Court overturn either the pre-existing condition protections (68 percent) or the entire health care law (54 percent); and most – including about half of Republicans – also say it is “very important” to them that the ACA provisions protecting people with pre-existing conditions remain law even after hearing that these protections may have led to increased insurance costs for some healthy people.

December 07, 2018

The Health 202: Obamacare enrollment is down 11 percent from last year

With just over a week now left in the sign-up period for 2019 Obamacare plans, new figures show enrollment is down compared with last year. Overall, sign-ups through HealthCare.gov, the federal Affordable Care Act exchange, are down 11 percent through the first five weeks compared with the same time last year -- and experts say final numbers are on track to be lower overall at the end of enrollment. It's still possible for a surge in the final days, as people wait until the last minute to choose health-care plans for 2019.

August 23, 2018

Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee explains why the Affordable Care Act must survive

Sacramento News & Review publisher and CEO Jeff vonKaenel visited Peter V. Lee in his Sacramento office last month to discuss the Affordable Care Act, skyrocketing costs and California’s role in the future of health care.

August 23, 2018

Modern Healthcare - 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare 2018

Covered California's Executive Director, Peter V. Lee, is named to the prestigious list for the second consecutive year.

February 08, 2018

Covered California reports big jump in new enrollees

Covered California finished 2018 open enrollment with 423,484 new enrollees signing up for coverage, so the agency’s leader isn’t worried about his agency’s continued existence.

February 07, 2018

ACA’s state-run insurance exchanges fare better than the law’s federal marketplace

The Affordable Care Act is working -- in states allowed to run it properly.

February 07, 2018

Q&A With Peter V. Lee, Executive Director, Covered California

Peter V. Lee talks about how investments in marketing and public relations drove increased consumer confidence in an entirely new way of buying health insurance.

November 29, 2017

Californians embrace Obamacare despite Trump attacks

Santa Rosa Press Democrat editorial board op-ed

November 01, 2017

Calif. Outspends U.S. To Market Obamacare

Covered California, the state’s Obamacare exchange, is wielding a monster marketing budget this enrollment season that devotes $45 million to ads a contrast to how the Trump administration is handling the federal rollout.

November 01, 2017

Covered California health insurance market is alive and well

San Jose Mercury News Editorial Board Op-Ed on how well Covered California is doing

October 16, 2017

Trump doesn't know it, but his attempt to blow up Obamacare could help California — and other states

Column examining how the Trump administration didn’t fully grasp what their decision to end CSRs could lead to and predicting how one fallout could be increased enrollment.

October 16, 2017

Trump Says Obamacare Is ‘Imploding.’ That’s News To California.

Funny what happens when officials actually believe in the program.

October 16, 2017

Yes, Obamacare needs tweaks — but it’s been a policy triumph

With the exception of Covered California, which created a vibrant market that has saved consumer money with only 4 percent premium growth and has helped health plans make money, most states have struggled to attract enough healthy people to create profitable and stable insurance markets.

November 11, 2015

Covered California exchange offers dental coverage for adults in 2016

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will brighten smiles among adults in California in 2016.

October 02, 2015

Whither Health Insurance Exchanges Under The Affordable Care Act? Active Purchasing Versus Passive Marketplaces

The health insurance exchange, the organizational innovation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is here to stay. The principle of consumer choice among private health plans, with financial subsidies for low-income households, is now firmly entrenched. The Supreme Court has ruled that low-income subsidies are constitutional and hence that the exchanges can operate effectively in all 50 states.

July 27, 2015

Obamacare works in California. Here's why.

Op-ed by Peter V. Lee and James Robinson

May 21, 2015

Covered California to cap patient costs for high-priced specialty drugs

California becomes first state in the nations to set caps for conditions such as Hepatitis-C and HIV.

September 30, 2014

Covered California marks 1st year with millions more insured

Covered California turns 1.