Bills would restore health mandate

California lawmakers aim to bring back part of ACA

Identical bills have been introduced in the California Senate and Assembly that would reinstate the individual mandate, requiring all Californians to have health insurance starting in 2020 or pay a tax penalty.

The bills, introduced in late January and mid-February by the two chambers, are an attempt to reverse the revocation by Congress of the federal mandate that was part of the Affordable Care Act.

Opponents of the mandate, including President Donald Trump, argued it was not fair to penalize someone for not having insurance. Supporters of the California bills say the insurance market will fall apart without the mandate.

“I don’t see a very rosy picture of what is happening now that the (federal) mandate is gone,” said Bill Youngblood of William Youngblood Insurance Agency in Rancho Mirage, California. “The pricing of insurance will increase without a mandate. You need everyone paying into the system to keep insurance premiums down.

Insurance premiums paid without the mandate will not be enough to make a healthy insurance system for California or even the country.”

Since the Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2013, the state’s uninsured rate has dropped from 20 percent to 7 percent.

A new study estimates that without a mandate, up to 800,000 more Californians under age of 65 will be uninsured by 2023, according to the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

If everyone in California are paying into the pool of health insurance premiums, then it increases the available funds to cover medical procedures.

“By everyone paying into the system, it helps keep insurance prices stable and more affordable for everyone,” Youngblood said.

LEZLIE STERLING/THE SACRAMENTO BEE FOR THE USC CENTER FOR HEALTH JOURNALISM. Covered California is the state’s health insurance marketplace.