News and Success Stories
Latest News and Press
CECHCR publishes Model Design for a Statewide School Pool
At our annual Health Care Summit in May 2010, CECHCR presented its new position paper and model design for a statewide public education risk pool. Read More and Get Full Report...
CECHCR's 3rd Annual Summit Held May 3
Attended by over 50 representatives of health care decision-makers, policymakers and other stakeholders, CECHCR's 2010 Health Care Summit focused on three issues of interest to the public education community. Read More and Get Full Report...
CECHCR Leadership Announcement
CSEA's Senior Health Policy Advisor, Cindy Young, is on special assignment through November 2010. In Cindy's absence, Dom Summa, CTA Assistant Executive Director emeritus, is stepping in to serve as interim Co-Chair for Labor. Dom is a founding member of the CECHCR board and we welcome him in this leadership role. Ruben Ingram, Executive Director of the School Employers Association of California, remains as Co-Chair for Management.
Success Stories
Montebello Unified School District
When the Montebello Unified School District was faced with a 30 percent increase to their health insurance plan, CECHCR Consultants John Glynn and Mark Lowental of J. Glynn & Co. assisted their insurance committee through a “second opinion” process—funded by CTA and CSEA—that helped avert the crisis and move members to a new plan. Described as a “tide turn” for the District, this joint effort between management and labor—promoted by CECHCR—resulted in a combined savings of approximately $11.5 million for 2010. Implementing the change for 3,000 employees quickly due to an approaching member renewal deadline presented a challenge that required a true team effort.
Read More.
CECHCR Trainings Help Oakley ESD Cut Health Care Costs
Many districts, after negotiating and completing their health insurance broker contracts, file the contracts away and leave them to collect dust. One Northern California school district realized significant cost savings by revisiting its contact and utilizing tips and strategies provided by a series of Health Benefits Trainings, offered free to districts by the California Education Coalition for Health Care Reform. Read More.
National Healthcare Reform
Implementing National Health Reform in California: Chronicling the Changes to Public and Private Coverage
California HealthCare Foundation, June 10, 2010
The Affordable Care Act aims to transform the way health care is provided in the United States, and state officials are now grappling with the many challenges that arrived with its recent passage. Sweeping in scope, with an implementation timeline spanning nearly a decade, the new law ultimately will bring coverage to millions of previously uninsured citizens and create new coverage options for millions more.
To help understand the quickly changing landscape, the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF), in partnership with Manatt Health Solutions, has assembled an initial assessment of the work ahead, Implementing National Health Reform in California: Changes to Public and Private Insurance.
The report focuses on the state's responsibilities in both the public and private coverage spheres, which will grow considerably. These include:
• Expanding Medi-Cal and reconfiguring eligibility standards under the program;
• Creating a health insurance exchange; and
• Implementing a wide range of mandated reforms to the commercial insurance markets in California.
Implementation of national health reform would be daunting in the best of times. Yet California, like many states, is operating with severe budget deficits that are expected to continue for years to come. Resources are already stretched thin in the very state agencies key to the effort. At the same time, a political transition at the highest levels of state government is in the near offing with the Governor's race already under way.
Despite these challenges and considerations, the new law has the potential to bring health insurance to many more Californians, thus improving their access to care. The goal for this early assessment is to help inform policymakers of actions needed to realize this potential.
Read the report online now
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