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Covered California Insights for Small Businesses

Explore health insurance choices via Covered California: Gain valuable insights into plans, subsidies, and open enrollment for small group health insurance.

2019 Jul 26

Update: UnitedHealth Care Postpones Rollout of New Association Health Plans in California

By |July 26th, 2019 |Categories: ACA, Association Health Plans, Covered California, Small Business Articles, Small Group Health Insurance|

Less than two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post that predicted that fireworks would hit California’s small group health insurance market with UHC’s new Association Health Plans.   Well,  sparks flew.  Yesterday, UnitedHealth Care announced that because of “regulatory inquiries over the past couple of weeks” UHC has suspended the [...]

2015 Sep 02

Need health insurance outside of the open enrollment period – consider the California Major Risk Plan (MRMIP)

By |September 2nd, 2015 |Categories: Individual Medical Insurance Articles, ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange|

If you didn't sign up for individual health insurance in California during the open enrollment period, you're not stuck.  A little known state program, Major Risk Medical Insurance Plan (MRMIP), may be your saving grace.  While no insurance company will offer you coverage outside of the open enrollment period unless [...]

2014 Oct 05

Group Health Insurance vs Individual Coverage: Compare After-Tax Cost, Provider Networks & Plan Benefits

By |October 5th, 2014 |Categories: ACA, Covered California, Health Insurance Reform, Individual health insurance vs group health insurance, Individual Medical Insurance Articles, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles|

Perhaps a company could give employees a salary bonus or "taxable discretionary wellness stipend" so that employees can buy their own individual medical coverage. If you’re considering a salary bonus or "wellness stipend" for employees to purchase their own individual medical insurance you should consider the following... Tax and worker’s comp savings are THE major reasons that companies sponsor group health insurance plans rather than offering a taxable stipend or salary bonus...A salary bonus or taxable wellness stipend for health insurance is extremely tax inefficient and forces employees to purchase inferior health insurance plans in the individual market.

2014 Aug 15

Should a company reimburse employees’ INDIVIDUAL health insurance cost rather than sponsor a GROUP medical plan?

By |August 15th, 2014 |Categories: ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Individual Medical Insurance Articles, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles|

With the high cost of health insurance many companies are considering alternative financing arrangements to group health plans.   The Affordable Care Act (i.e., ACA, Obama Care, Health Care Reform) created exchanges to help individuals purchase their own coverage.  Also, the ACA forbids insurance companies from asking questions about preexisting [...]

2013 Sep 23

Covered California – Agent Training & Enrollment Website

By |September 23rd, 2013 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform|Tags: , , , , |

Covered California, the new health insurance exchange in California has begun agent training. Kudos to them because they have accomplished a lot in a very short period of time. With this blog post I hope to give some first hand info and feed back on the training process and on the enrollment procedures and processes.

2013 Sep 06

Understanding California Health Care Reform / Obamacare / Affordable Care Act / ACA

By |September 6th, 2013 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Individual Medical Insurance Articles, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles, Videos|Tags: , , , , , , , |

We've prepared easy-to-understand videos that explain the new health care reform law (Affordable Care Ace, ACA, Obama Care). Topics include how to complete the required notices (Exchange, SBC & Glossary); an overview of individual and family coverage including Covered California; and problems of the current system that the ACA solves.

2013 Aug 13

Covered California Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Exchange Rates

By |August 13th, 2013 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Small Business Articles|

Given the rates SHOP released and the new rules for rating individual and small group health insurance, I am led to the conclusion that some small groups (and individuals) will likely pay much more than they currently do - while some may pay less.

2013 May 24

Covered California (Exchange) Announces a Few Individual Rates

By |May 24th, 2013 |Categories: ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Individual Medical Insurance Articles|

Today, May 23, 2013, the California Health Benefit Exchange, Covered California, released the 2014 individual health plan rates for 25 and 40 year olds. As they said in their press release, “it is impossible to make a direct comparison of these rates to existing premiums in the commercial market.” Still, at first glance the rates don’t look too high – but there..

2013 May 17

Health Care Reform Update: Action in Sacramento

By |May 17th, 2013 |Categories: Small Business Articles, ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform|

Much is in flux with the ACA and we should accept that many good questions do not have answers – yet. Michael Lujan, Director of Sales and Marketing for Covered California advised us to “get the facts.” We should be comfortable saying: “here is what we know now and here is what has not been determined. We don’t have the information to answer all of the questions… at this time. ”

2013 Apr 15

CA Exchange Website Could Spell Trouble for Insurers & Consumers

By |April 15th, 2013 |Categories: ACA, Covered California, Health Benefit Exchange, Health Insurance Reform, Individual Medical Insurance Articles|

On April 8th, 2013 Covered California/exchange/HBEX held a webinar for agents to describe their online enrollment process. Buried at the end of the presentation, slide 37 of 39 slides, was a screenshot of the page someone will see when he/she goes online to select a health insurance plan through Covered California. Bad [...]

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