HEALTHCARE COSTS
Governor Newsom’s Healthcare Budget Proposal for 2025-26
Dilani Logan, Student Fellow February 7, 2025
On January 10, 2025, Governor Newsom released his proposed California state budget for the 2025-26 term. Following last year’s $46 billion budget shortfall, the Governor’s new budget looked quite different this year. Specifically, the budget had no deficits, reporting a projected surplus of $363 million due to the state’s prediction that it will collect almost $17 billion more in revenue than was originally planned. In fact, this year is slated to go down as California’s second-largest state spending plan ever, at a value of almost $322 billion. Overview of the […]
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The Source Roundup: February 2025 Edition
Kassie Williams February 1, 2025
Healthcare Pricing Can Public Option Plans Improve Affordability? Insights From Colorado (Health Affairs Forefront) Roslyn Murray, Christopher M. Whaley In the face of individuals and families unable to afford increasing insurance premiums due to lack of healthcare insurance competition, a variety of states are considering offering public option plans, commonly for ACA Exchange plans. These plans seek to provide coverage with low premiums by means of capped prices for those who do not meet Medicare or Medicaid requirements nor receive private coverage through employment. The article describes Colorado’s effective public […]
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The Source Roundup: January 2025 Edition
Dilani Logan, Student Fellow January 2, 2025
Price Transparency Hospital Payment Caps Could Save State Employee Health Plans Millions While Keeping Hospital Operating Margins Healthy (Health Affairs) Roslyn C. Murray, Christopher M. Whaley, Erin C. Fuse Brown, Andrew M. Ryan As health insurance premiums continue to rise, state employee health plans are occupying an increasing portion of state budgets. State employers are often the largest purchaser or commercial health insurance in each state, given the volume of employees that they employ. As such, state governments are placed in a unique negotiating position to implement cost containment strategies. […]
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The Source Roundup: December 2024 Edition
Dilani Logan, Student Fellow December 2, 2024
Healthcare Competition and Consolidation Chang(ing) Health Care: Bigger May Not Be Better, Just Necessary (Health Affairs Forefront) Atul Grover, Jonathan B. Jaffery As the health care market increasingly trends towards consolidation, many have been left wondering whether the trend towards amalgamated efficiency truly is better. The authors of a new Health Affairs article are arguing that the answer is no. Specifically, they state that the trend towards larger, more consolidated entities is resulting in higher health care costs without marked improvements to quality. As health systems become larger, their power […]
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The Source Roundup: October 2024 Edition
Dilani Logan, Student Fellow October 1, 2024
Healthcare Competition and Consolidation The Rise of Health Care Consolidation and What to Do About It (Health Affairs Forefront) Erin C. Fuse Brown, Yashawini Singh, Christopher M. Whaley, Jared Perkins As hospital consolidation continues to meteorically rise, an increasing number of government institutions including the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and Congress, have diverted move resources towards understanding and responding to the negative impacts of these trends. The drive towards health care consolidation began in the 1990s and has resulted in a highly concentrated hospital market. Increased consolidation […]
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Self-Funded Employer Suits Against Third Party Administrator May Be the Beginning of a Larger Trend
Bruce Allain, Managing Editor September 16, 2024
New laws and rules requiring greater transparency into the behaviors and reimbursements of insurers have given employees and employers a clearer picture of where their healthcare dollars are going. For example, the “Transparency in Coverage” rule, implemented in October 2020, required health plans and insurers to post rates they negotiate with providers and develop price transparency tools related to cost-sharing. The “Consolidated Appropriations Act”, passed in 2021, requires Third Party Administrators (TPAs) to provide notice of other compensation they receive to plan sponsors and restricts “gag clauses” that would otherwise […]
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Most Recent Attempt at Establishing Universal Single-Payer Healthcare in California Fails Again
Kassie Williams September 10, 2024
Assembly Bill 2200, better known as the Guaranteed Health Care for All Act, which seeks to establish a universal single-payer healthcare system called CalCare has once again failed. Assemblymember Ash Kalra’s newest attempt at a single-payer bill is the most current in a long line of attempts to secure universal healthcare for Californians. In 2022, we wrote about Assembly Bill 1400, a single-payer universal healthcare bill that would see coverage expand to every resident within the state of California. 2022 was not the first time, nor the last, that state […]
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The Source Roundup: September 2024 Edition
Dilani Logan, Student Fellow September 1, 2024
Healthcare Competition and Consolidation Vertical Integration and Market Consolidation in Healthcare: Policy Drivers and Impact on Physicians and Patient Care (Seminars in Colon and Rectal Surgery) Rachel Ekaireb, Anna Yap, and Robert Kucejko Over the past several decades, the healthcare market has become increasingly consolidated. For instance, in the last twelve years alone, the percentage of physicians employed by hospitals or healthcare systems has more than doubled from 26% to 55%. While proponents for vertical integration have touted its potential to improve the efficiency and quality of care delivery, empirical […]
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2024 Trailer Bills Implement California Healthcare Budget
Kassie Williams August 9, 2024
The finalized 2024-2025 budget bill was announced on June 22, 2024 with General Fund spending over $200 billion and nearly $47 billion in solutions to cover the shortfall that was created in part by the projected 2022 budget surplus and the tax filing deadline delay. While the finalized budget addresses many of these shortfalls, several trailer bills will be enacted to close the gaps and ensure continuation of state health and human service programs. Below is a closer look at the trailer bill language affecting health and human services and […]
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June Joint Legislative Update on the California 2024-2025 State Budget
Kassie Williams July 8, 2024
Despite substantial proposed budget cuts to cover the $45 billion deficit, the California legislature released a $297 billion joint budget proposal responding to Governor Newsom’s May Revision. The final bill lays out a $46.9 billion dollar solution for the 2024-2025 fiscal year made up of program reductions, delays, & deferrals; revenue; fund shifts; and reserve utilization. In opposition to the Governor’s May Revise, the shortfall will be covered by alternative means including a temporary tax increase on businesses allowing for a $5 billion revenue increase, and a $1 billion cut […]
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