deadline on health care bills

The Legislature has until the end of the month to pass or reject several key health bills, making this week a turning point for some reforms related to the new federal health law.

Among the measures heading for a final floor vote are bills that would regulate health insurance rates and set up an "exchange" through which consumers would buy insurance under the federal law.

The legislative session is set to end Aug. 31, so lawmakers must act on the pending legislation, or the bills will die.

"I've not seen a year with such a combination of significant health care legislation that could be potentially passed and signed," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a statewide consumer and labor advocacy coalition.

Several of the bills are generating controversy. A bill that would set up California's health insurance exchange, the virtual marketplace of health insurance options required in 2014 under the fede ral law, passed the Assembly on Friday. The bill, authored by Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, is scheduled to go back to the Senate and be voted on with a companion bill.

Insurers are against both bills, as are several Republican lawmakers, without amendments that would limit taxation on insurers and require more legislative oversight. They argue that the bills set up a new bureaucracy with broad powers to tax them and create disadvantages for smaller health plans in the exchange.

"Our concern is that (the bill) sets up very broad authority and powers," said Charles Bacchi, executive vice president of the California Association of Health Plans. "We believe if they make wrong decisions, it could result in fewer choices for consumers."
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