AB 2472: Health care coverage.

Existing federal law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), enacts various health care coverage market reforms that took effect January 1, 2014. Among other things, PPACA required each state to establish an American Health Benefit Exchange to facilitate the purchase of qualified health plans by qualified individuals and qualified small employers.

Existing state law establishes the Council on Health Care Delivery Systems as an independent body to develop a plan that includes options for advancing progress toward achieving a health care delivery system in California that provides coverage and access through a unified financing system for all Californians. Existing law requires the council, on or before October 1, 2021, to submit to the Legislature and the Governor a plan with options that include a timeline of the benchmarks and steps necessary to implement health care delivery system changes, including steps necessary to achieve a unified financing system.

This bill would also require the council to prepare an analysis and evaluation, known as a feasibility analysis, to determine the feasibility of a public health insurance plan option to increase competition and choice for health care consumers. The bill would require the feasibility analysis to contain, among other things, an actuarial and economic analysis of a public health insurance plan and an analysis of the extent to which a new public health insurance plan option could address the underlying factors that limit health plan choices in some regions. The bill would require the council to submit the feasibility analysis to the Legislature and the Governor on or before October 1, 2021.