Bill Text: CA SB175 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Health care coverage.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2020-06-18 - Referred to Com. on HEALTH. [SB175 Detail]

Download: California-2019-SB175-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Senate  January 06, 2020

Amended  IN  Senate  April 03, 2019

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 175

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Introduced by Senator Pan

January 28, 2019

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An act to amend Section 100520 of, and to add Title 24 (commencing with Section 100700) to, the Government Code, to amend Section 1399.849 of, and to add Section 1345.5 to, repeal and add Section 1367.001 of the Health and Safety Code, to amend Section 10965.3 of, and to add Section 10112.45 to, the Insurance Code, and to amend Sections 19254, 19291, 19521, and 19533 of, to add Section 19548.8 to, and to add Part 32 (commencing with Section 61000) to Division 2 of, the Revenue and Taxation Code, relating to health care coverage, and making an appropriation therefor. coverage.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 175, as amended, Pan. Health care coverage: minimum essential coverage.

Existing federal law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), enacts various health care market reforms. Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law requires a health care service plan that issues, sells, renews, or offers plan contracts for health care coverage in the state to comply with the requirements of the PPACA, and any rules or regulations issued under the PPACA, that generally prohibit a health plan offering group or individual coverage from imposing lifetime or annual limits on the dollar value of benefits for a participant or beneficiary. Existing law requires a plan to comply with those provisions to the extent required by federal law.

This bill would delete the requirement that a plan comply with the prohibition on lifetime or annual limits to the extent required by federal law, and would instead prohibit an individual or group health care service plan contract from establishing lifetime or annual limits on the dollar value of benefits for an enrollee, thereby indefinitely extending the prohibitions on lifetime or annual limits, except as specified. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law provides for the regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange (Exchange), also known as Covered California, for the purpose of facilitating the purchase of qualified health plans by qualified individuals and qualified small employers. Existing law establishes the California Health Trust Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund for these purposes.

Existing federal law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), enacts various health care coverage market reforms as of January 1, 2014. PPACA generally requires an individual, and any dependents of the individual, to maintain minimum essential coverage, as defined, and, if an individual fails to maintain minimum essential coverage, PPACA imposes on the individual taxpayer a penalty. This provision is referred to as the individual mandate.

This bill would create the Minimum Essential Coverage Individual Mandate to require a California resident to ensure that the resident, and any dependent of the resident, is covered under minimum essential coverage, as defined, for each month beginning on January 1, 2020, except as specified. The bill would require the Exchange to grant exemptions from the mandate for reason of hardship or religious conscience, and would require the Exchange to establish a process for determining eligibility for an exemption. The bill would impose the Individual Shared Responsibility Penalty for the failure to maintain minimum essential coverage, as determined and collected by the Franchise Tax Board, in collaboration with the Exchange, as specified. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to provide specified information to the Exchange regarding individuals who do not maintain minimum essential coverage, and would require the Exchange to conduct annual outreach and enrollment efforts with those individuals. The bill would require an applicable entity, as defined, that provides minimum essential coverage to an individual to file specified returns to the Franchise Tax Board regarding that coverage, as prescribed.

The bill would also expand the purposes of the California Health Trust Fund to include the Exchange’s operational costs of the Minimum Essential Coverage Individual Mandate and the Affordable Care Access Plus Program. By expanding the purposes of a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

This bill would become operative only if SB 65 of the 2019–20 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2020.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: YESNO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NOYES  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 1367.001 of the Health and Safety Code is repealed.

1367.001.

(a)To the extent required by federal law, every health care service plan that issues, sells, renews, or offers contracts for health care coverage in this state shall comply with the requirements of Section 2711 of the federal Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 300gg-11) and any rules or regulations issued under that section, in addition to any state laws or regulations that do not prevent the application of those requirements.

(b)Nothing in this section shall be construed to apply to a health care service plan contract or insurance policy issued, sold, renewed, or offered for health care services or coverage provided in the Medi-Cal program (Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 14000) of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code), the Healthy Families Program (Part 6.2 (commencing with Section 12693) of Division 2 of the Insurance Code), the Access for Infants and Mothers Program (Part 6.3 (commencing with Section 12695) of Division 2 of the Insurance Code), the California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (Part 6.5 (commencing with Section 12700) of Division 2 of the Insurance Code), or the Federal Temporary High Risk Insurance Pool (Part 6.6 (commencing with Section 12739.5) of Division 2 of the Insurance Code), to the extent consistent with the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148).

SEC. 2.

 Section 1367.001 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

1367.001.

 (a) An individual or group health care service plan contract shall not establish either of the following:

(1) Lifetime limits on the dollar value of benefits for an enrollee.

(2) Annual limits on the dollar value of benefits for an enrollee.

(b) Subdivision (a) does not prevent a group health care service plan contract from placing annual or lifetime per-enrollee limits on specific covered benefits that are not essential health benefits, as defined under Section 1367.005, to the extent that those limits are otherwise permitted under federal or state law.

(c) This section does not apply to a health care service plan contract or insurance policy issued, sold, renewed, or offered for health care services or coverage provided in the Medi-Cal program (Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 14000) of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code), the Medi-Cal Access Program (Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 15810) of Part 3.3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code), or the California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 15870) of Part 3.3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code).

SEC. 3.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.