While President Obama's health care overhaul turns three on Saturday, many states are scrambling to get everything ready for the full rollout on January 1. California was the first state to pass legislation to set up a marketplace, and the Legislature has done a lot of work since. But there's still a lot left to do -- and fast.
To bring you up to date, three major sets of bills are before the Legislature in its Affordable Care Act special session. (Six bills total; Assembly and Senate have their own versions of three proposals).
Of those, two issues are key:
- Reforming the individual market
- Medi-Cal expansion (the state's health insurance program for the poor.
As David Gorn of the CaliforniaHealthline reports, the California Legislature went on spring recess yesterday. These ACA bills are outstanding, much to the frustration of advocates. These special session bills take effect in 90 days, once they are passed. ACA proponents had hoped passage would have happened already.
As far as the individual market reform goes, those bills were hung up over technical language which appears to have been resolved (tie-back to the federal law's individual mandate, for you wonks out there). Gorn reports that Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) is confident the bill will be on Gov. Brown's desk soon after the Legislature is back in session.