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SACRAMENTO, Calif. - An estimated 800,000 of the one million new enrollees in California's online healthcare exchange could be out of the exchange's marketplace, before the program, set for a 2014 launch, even begins. If California passes the Basic Health Care Plan, a government run program for low income adults who barely earn above the Medi-Cal income level, threatening the exchange's ability to stay competitive.
A bill for a Basic Health Plan, an option under President Obama's Affordable Healthcare Act, died in California's Assembly Appropriations Committee in August. But the plan is expected to be a topic of discussion at a special legislative session in December.
The Basic Health Plan is essentially a new public program that would be for low income California residents. Enrollees would go primarily to public hospitals and community clinics instead of getting government subsidies to purchase private insurance through a broad range of insurers on the state's online exchange.
Critics of the Basic Health Plan say it would take 40% of consumers away from the federally mandated online marketplace and more than half it's federal funding, therefore weakening the bargaining power of the exchange.
Dr. Micah Weinberg is a Senior Policy Advisor for the Bay Area Council. He says, "Are we actually just going to cut the exchange off, not even at the knees, but the exchange off at the hips, which is this important central piece of healthcare reform, to take a whole group of people, put them into a series of networks associated with the Medicaid program that are already overflowing and i think that's the wrong call."
Meanwhile, John Ramey, the Executive Director for Local Health Plans of California, says, "We're all concerned about the success of the exchange but the primary purpose here is affordable health insurance to the extent that a basic health plan can make it more affordable for low income folks then we ought to do it."
Again, the Basic Health Plan option is on the agenda of a special end of the year session on healthcare, called by Governor Jerry Brown. The plan would be heavily subsidized by the federal government to ensure low rates for state residents just above the Medi-Cal income level. According to Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley, many lawmakers wanted to pass that Basic Health Plan, but their were too many concerns about the well being of the exchange to pass the legislation as it was written.
