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California's health exchange is violating the law by canceling private coverage for up to 95,000 people because they might qualify for Medi-Cal, the state's insurance commissioner says. At issue is health insurance for some of the poorest Californians whose incomes aren't high enough to even qualify for subsidized policies in the Covered California exchange. The state marketplace is notifying thousands of policyholders that their federal premium subsidies for Obamacare coverage will end Dec. 31 and their private health plan won't be renewed starting in January. Instead, these people will be put into Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for low-income residents....

In my previous column, I explained that you become ineligible for Covered California’s tax credits when you turn 65 and enroll in Medicare. You will owe money to the government if you keep getting the credits after your Medicare begins. So I tried to offer a simple solution: Cancel your Covered California plan. Unfortunately, in the past two weeks, I have heard from Californians and insurance agents across the state who have tried mightily — and failed — to cancel their plans. Instead, the premium bills just keep coming. A Covered California phone rep told him that the cancellation challenges...

he state uses an army of certified agents to guide around 40% of the people who enroll in Covered California, the state’s subsidized health-care system. And like any army, this one would like to get paid. That hasn’t been happening. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that many of the 12,600 insurance agents haven’t been paid for months. Around 2,200 agents are owed around $2 million for shepherding Med-Cal patients through the system and the state doesn’t intend to pay them before January. These are probably the wrong people to piss off at the beginning of Covered California’s second...

Californians with health insurance obtained through the Obamacare exchange are continuing to find themselves being turned away when they seek out many top health care specialists and hospitals, according to the latest report in an ongoing investigation by the Los Angeles Times.The Obama Health Care exchange (called Covered California within the state) has the power to exclude insurance plans in the exchange based on rate increases. The problem is the plans often need to raise rates to ensure access to high-level life-saving care. Because plans are worried about being booted from doing business in the state exchanges, they have slashed...

Finding a doctor who takes Obamacare coverage could be just as frustrating for Californians in 2015 as the health-law expansion enters its second year. The state's largest health insurers are sticking with their often-criticized narrow networks of doctors, and in some cases they are cutting the number of physicians even more, according to a Times analysis of company data. And the state's insurance exchange, Covered California, still has no comprehensive directory to help consumers match doctors with health plans. This comes as insurers prepare to enroll hundreds of thousands of new patients this fall and get 1.2 million Californians to...

A mountainous backlog of Medi-Cal applications is well into its third month, but California officials have provided little information about how and when the largest such bottleneck in the nation might be cleared. Not only has application processing been delayed, the state has also fallen behind in sending final notifications to enrollees, officials confirmed. Meanwhile, many low-income people who qualify for Medi-Cal are showing up at community clinics and costly emergency rooms as they have in the past. Others are putting off care. The holdup in Medi-Cal approvals has led to financial uncertainty for many of California's community health clinics,...

Frustration and legal challenges over the network of doctors and hospitals for Obamacare patients have marred an otherwise successful rollout of the federal healthcare law in California. Limiting the number of medical providers was part of an effort by insurers to hold down premiums. But confusion over the new plans has led to unforeseen medical bills for some patients and prompted a state investigation. More complaints are surfacing as patients start to use their new coverage bought through Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange. "I thought I had done everything right, and it's been awful," said Jean Buchanan, 56....

LOS ANGELES - A new study finds that just two in five Los Angeles community health clinics are ready for Obamacare, it was reported today. The finding came out of a study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research that examined approximately 40 clinics in the Los Angeles area to determine how prepared they were for an expected increase in new patients because of the Affordable Care Act, the Los Angeles Times reported. Under Obamacare, hundreds of thousands of people signed up for health insurance in Los Angeles County, which led the state in sign-ups through Covered California, with...

A California man has been seeking treatment for Lyme disease, something he contracted while on active duty as a Marine, but he’s having a hard time finding a doctor in the San Francisco Bay area that accepts his insurance. The insurance company’s advice? Cancel his plan. KPIX-TV, though, says the fact that he can’t find a doctor within a reasonable distance violates state law and nothing appears to be taking place to fix the issue. The former Marine identified by KPIX by only his first name, Kyle, is covered by Anthem BlueCross through the state exchange Covered California. “I was on the...

Tax-preparing companies are getting paid by an Obamacare exchange to enroll people in Obamacare plans, The Daily Caller has learned. At least 79 tax service providers, including offices of major companies like Liberty Tax Service and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, are listed as certified Obamacare enrollment entities in the state of California, according to state exchange records. California’s Obamacare exchange, Covered California, pays enrollment entities for signing people up for Obamacare. “Certified Enrollment Entities are paid a flat-fee of $58 per successful application and $25 per successful annual renewal,” according to California Health Benefit Advisers. ”The Enrollment Entities compensate the...

Two months after KPIX 5 ConsumerWatch first reported about some doctors listed on the Covered California exchange were actually not accepting the plans, insurer Anthem Blue Cross admitted that nearly 1,000 doctors were erroneously listed. According to a statement by the California Medical Association, the insurer recently notified 965 physicians that they were wrongly placed on the exchange’s list. The notice, which was posted on April 9th, stated that the doctors were “inadvertently” listed for “a certain period of time” during the open enrollment period.

For years we have known that the claim under Obamacare, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan,” was false. We have also known that the claim under Obamacare, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” was false. But what we didn’t know was that under Obamacare, “If you need a doctor, you may have to drive more than 100 miles to find a doctor.” I noticed in my new Anthem monthly premium under Obamacare that I was required to pay a separate monthly charge for dental insurance for my two teenage children (I also...

We are a family of six – two parents and four children – who, because of a rough year in 2013, had to apply for subsidized healthcare coverage under the new Obamacare rules. Yes, count us among the 7.1 million that Kathleen Sebelius is currently claiming are active Obamacare signups. We live in Orange County, Southern California, so our coverage comes through the state exchange, Covered California ...

Deaf Californians looking to sign up for health insurance coverage through the state’s Obamacare exchange were directed Monday to a hotline offering to connect them with “hot ladies.” As some Californians learned on the final day of open enrollment, one of the phone numbers provided by Covered California, the state’s online exchange, was 1-888-899-4500, one digit off from the real number, 1-888-889-4500. So instead of being connected to an Obamacare representative, some hearing-impaired Californians were instead sent to an “adult entertainment” phone service. “Welcome to America’s hottest talk line. Ladies, to talk to interesting and exciting guys free, press one...

A local couple called 10News concerned after they received an envelope from the state's Obamacare website, Covered California. Inside was a letter discussing voter registration and a registration card pre-marked with an "x" in the box next to Democratic Party.

It's almost become a cliché: If the new health care law makes it here, it can make it anywhere. As thousands of California procrastinators try to beat Monday's midnight deadline to apply for a health care plan, they'll be joining more than 1 million others in the Bellwether State who already have enrolled through California's health insurance exchange. And another 2 million have been determined eligible for Medi-Cal, the state's program for the poor.

With less than a month left to sign up for private insurance under the federal health care law, California's enrollment numbers are closing in on the magic number of 1 million as 8,000 people sign up every day. If only everyone would pay their premiums. Roughly 15 percent of the Californians who had enrolled by Jan. 31 still haven't sent in their first month's payment, according to four major health insurance companies participating in the Covered California exchange. So those lofty enrollment numbers could soon be dropping substantially.

Lowering costs by forcing doctors and insurers to compete for millions of new patients is a primary goal of the nation's new health care law, but a group of gastroenterologists in the East Bay and internists near Chico are exposing a fissure in that plan. There often aren't enough doctors to go around.

Think signing up for health insurance through Covered California is hard? Some consumers say the real battle starts when it comes to finding a doctor or hospital that will take a plan purchased through the state-run health exchange.

Nearly a half million Californians enrolled in Obamacare health plans through the end of December, according to data released Monday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said 498,794 Californians picked health exchange plans, which gives the state 23 percent of the nearly 2.1 million enrollments nationwide. Considering the state has about 12 percent of the nation’s population, California has been more effective than other states in enrolling residents. The state has nearly met the lower threshold of predictions that call for 500,000 to 700,000 Californians to buy policies by March 31. “There is a feeling of optimism here...