California officials are working to make health insurance for California more affordable and value-based with plans for an Internet-based exchange. The plan is expected to not only help individual consumers, but to also help business owners struggling with escalating California health insurance rates.
In California, health insurance premium increases have outpaced the rate of inflation by more than four fold. While the state’s overall inflation rate has increased 23.1 percent since 2002, California health insurance premiums increased by 117.5 percent.
In the legislature, attempts to bring rate increases under regulatory control were defeated by insurance companies in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Determined to gain authority similar to that already in existence in some other states where regulators can prevent unwarranted rate hikes, California legislators have proposed a like-minded bill in the current session.
California Health Insurance Exchange Is Based On Working Model
In Southern California, the country’s oldest and most successful California health insurance exchange already serves more than 150,000 members and almost 12,000 employers. CaliforniaChoice has been in operation for 15 years and provides a successful working model for the future exchange.
Growing out of the Affordable Care Act that became law in 2010, the new California health insurance exchange is meant to give consumers greater choice in health plans. Something similar to an Internet-based shopping mall is being designed to expand access for individuals and employers to see how health plans stack up to each other in side-by-side comparisons.
Health Insurance For California Will Provide A Standard Set Of Benefits
To protect consumers from the “healthtipsae” that can conceal exclusions and limits to significantly reduce coverage consumers may think they are buying, the California health insurance exchange will have a standard set of benefits. Health care services will cover specific benefits while offering different levels of cost sharing, such as co-pays and co-insurance.