California Association of Health Plans Issues Statement on Covered California's Robust Enrollment Increase

SACRAMENTO, California, Feb. 19 -- California Association of Health Plans issued the following statement:

The California Association of Health Plans (CAHP) applauded Covered California's announcement that more than 400,000 people have signed up for health insurance coverage through the state's health care marketplace during the most recent open-enrollment period. This represents the highest enrollment numbers since 2016 and is 41% higher than last year's figure of more than 295,000 people who enrolled.

"This robust boost in enrollment is excellent news for Californians and shows that the new state policies supported by California's health plans are working to provide more people with access to affordable primary and preventive care," said CAHP President and CEO, Charles Bacchi. "This demonstrates that by continuing to build upon the success of the Affordable Care Act, we are well on our way to achieving universal coverage in California."

One of the new policies contributing to the increased enrollment and supported by health plans is California's health coverage requirement - a recently enacted state law requiring Californians to have health insurance coverage. By requiring everyone to have health insurance --the combined costs for both healthy and sicker populations work to lower premiums for all, even for those with expensive medical conditions.

Health plans also supported expanding financial help to middle-income Californians. The new state subsidies are helping to make health care coverage more affordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians. Over 500,000 families have already benefitted from this new financial help according to Covered California.

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CAHP is a statewide association representing 46 full-service health plans. Through legislative advocacy, education and collaboration with other member organizations, CAHP works to sustain a strong environment in which our member plans can provide access to products that offer choice and flexibility to the more than 25 million members they serve. For more information, please visit www.calhealthplans.org or call (916) 552-2910.