Single Payer or Multi-Payer
California Budget Watch (Part 4 of 4): The Legislature Implements Major Healthcare Reforms in Trailer Bills SB 78 and SB 104
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher August 30, 2019
Last month, we recapped the appropriations allocated to healthcare reform in the 2019 California Budget. These budget allocations, however, do not provide much guidance on how the money should be spent. Trailer bills provide the statutory language to implement the budget. With the enacted 2019 budget, the Governor signed two healthcare trailer bills passed by the Legislature, SB 78 and SB 104. In this post, we dissect these trailers bills which create and implement various programs impacting healthcare access and costs. What are Trailer Bills? SB 78 and SB …
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The Source Roundup: July 2019 Edition
Source Fellow July 1, 2019
By: Hayden Soria, Student Fellow Happy July! Hope everyone is staying cool in the summer heat. In this month’s Source Roundup, we take a dive into academic articles and studies that look at 1) healthcare system reform on a national and state level 2) health care markets concentration and competition, and 3) developing trends in prescription drug pricing. Healthcare System Reform Ever since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation nine years ago, it has become one of the most polarizing topics in American political culture, spawning debates both in support …
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The Source Roundup: June 2019 Edition
Source Fellow June 3, 2019
By: Hayden Soria, Student Fellow Happy June! Summer is just around the corner and healthcare policy discussion is heating up. In this month’s Source Roundup, we highlight academic articles and studies that look at 1) the high costs of employer-sponsored insurance, 2) how much private insurers are paying hospitals compared to Medicare, and 3) implications of single payer system reform. Increasing Employer-based Insurance Costs Present Difficulties to Many Americans In the last twelve years, annual deductibles in employer-based health plans have sky-rocketed and now average more than $1,300 annually. A …
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State Progress Toward a Healthcare Public Option: The State of Washington is the Trailblazer
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher May 9, 2019
*Update: On May 13, 2019, Governor Jay Inslee signed SB 5526 into law making Washington the first state public option plan. Washington now takes the first difficult steps toward implementing the law. In the current political climate, debate continues at the state and federal level over the role of government in containing health care costs and ensuring coverage for all Americans. Specifically, in a survey done in March 2019 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a majority of Americans (56%) supported a national health plan.[1] Little consensus, however, exists on how …
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The Source Roundup: April 2019 Edition
Source Fellow April 1, 2019
By: Erin Sclar, Student Fellow Spring is finally here! With it, we review articles and reports about 1) single payer health plans and universal health care, 2) the causes, effects, and possible solutions to rising prescription drug pricing, and 3) health care costs and price transparency. Single Payer Health Plans and Universal Health Care The terms “single payer health plans” and “universal health care” are becoming increasingly familiar as the 2020 elections approach. But the meanings of these terms, and the specific policies and proposals associated with them, are often …
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Governor Newsom Makes Big Steps Towards Establishing California as the Nation’s Leader in Health Care Policy
Source Fellow February 5, 2019
By: Leah S. Gray, Student Fellow On his first day as the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom made his first steps towards carrying out his health care campaign promise of universal health care. Additionally, two parts of his plan look like a direct rebuke of the Trump administration, as Newsom hopes to ensure health coverage for undocumented young people and impose the individual mandate, which Congress attempted to repeal, in California. He also used his first executive orders to work towards lowering the cost of prescription drugs and to create California’s …
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Recapping the 2017-2018 California Legislative Session (Part 1): Incremental Steps Made in Targeting High Drug Costs and Achieving Single Payer
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher January 8, 2019
After considering 5,617 bills and resolutions, the two year California legislative cycle has come to a conclusion. As health care costs become more scrutinized, more bills than ever have emerged to target these costs. While not all of those bills passed, a significant amount of bills that did pass as well as the notable bills that failed coalesce around four themes: targeting high costs of prescription drugs, working towards a single payer system, regulating competition, and limiting high health costs. This post will focus on the first two themes: high …
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The Source Roundup: December 2018 Edition
Source Fellow December 3, 2018
By: Leah S. Gray, Student Fellow Happy December! ‘Tis the season for curling up next to the fire and catching up with what’s happening in the world of health policy. In this December Roundup, we highlight (1) effect of disclosing prescription drug price in advertisements, (2) a systematic review of cost-saving literature, (3) employer alliances for health plans, (4) how to decrease the cost of care for Alzheimer’s patients, and finally, already gearing up for the next election, (5) what types of health policies the Democratic and Republican 2020 presidential nominees …
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The Source Roundup: October 2018 Edition
Source Fellow October 1, 2018
By: Jake Winton, Student Fellow Welcome to October! We hope you are getting your costumes picked out and finding those deals to stock up on trick-or-treat candy. In this edition of The Source Roundup, we review five academic articles and reports from September that stood out to us. This month we look at (1) price inflation in the California fully-insured large group market, (2) forward motion in drug price transparency laws, (3) the future of pharmaceutical reference pricing in the U.S., (4) lessons learned from California’s competitive healthcare model, and (5) …
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California Legislative Beat: Transformative Healthcare Bills of 2018 (Pt. 1)
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher June 21, 2018
Year two of California’s 2017-2018 legislative session has been an active one. As lawmakers work diligently, The Source will take a brief look at some 2018 bills that can potentially change the California healthcare landscape. SB 1021: This bill removes the sunset provision for AB 339 (2015), which was enacted to cap cost sharing for a covered outpatient prescription drug at $250/$500 per 30-day supply.[1] Furthermore, the bill codifies the regulation that “prohibits an enrollee or insured from being charged more than the retail price for a prescription drug …
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