Newsom Proposes New Health Insurance Mandate for Californians

On Governor Newsom’s first day in office, California’s governor proposed a new health insurance mandate requiring all Californians to either have health insurance or Medi-Cal, the state’s welfare program, or face a tax penalty. The newly proposed legislation is in reaction to the federal health insurance mandate tax penalty going away in 2019 to help stabilize the individual/family market.

A big concern for both health insurers and the state legislature is that the health insurance risk pools will become too concentrated with the sick, higher cost members as healthy individuals move away from comprehensive health insurance since they would not be penalized for doing so. California did already ban short-term medical insurance for 2019 to prevent an outflow of healthy insurance members. Now, with a proposed state-wide tax penalty, California’s legislature hopes to further prevent outflows from comprehensive coverage while using the tax revenue to subsidize health insurance premiums for lower income individuals/families.

The tax penalty would subsidize individuals earning up to $72,480 annually or for families of 4 making under $150,600 per year. This would be great news to many of our clients who earn too much to be eligible for current subsidies but are not earning enough to comfortably afford their health insurance. In California, health insurance premiums have increased by 50% over the last 5 years, hitting the middle class the hardest.

At Solid Health Insurance Services, we will always strive to keep our clients informed on the latest healthcare trends and legislation. We will continue to keep you up-to-date on the status of Governor Newsom’s health insurance mandate proposal. As the 2019 Open Enrollment Period January 15th deadline to enroll approaches, please make sure to contact us if you would like to make any final changes to your 2019 health insurance for a February 1st effective date.

Our mission is to find for you affordable health insurance, life insurance, long-term care insurance and travel insurance which fits your medical needs and budget for your individual, family and business needs. Please contact us at 310-909-6135 or at info@solidhealthinsurance.com.

from Solid Health Insurance http://bit.ly/2H3mRJV