Following the Supreme Court decision to uphold the constitutionality of President
Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), Peter Lee, the director
of the California’s Health Benefit Exchange—which will oversee the marketplace that
will start to carry by 2014 subsidized health insurance for
Californians—announced that the state is now putting together a system that should
make it as easy to buy health insurance "as buying a book on Amazon or shoes on Zappos"—and give good
business to health insurance professionals, as well to life insurance agents
(professionals who have a lifeinsurance license) down the line.
"People want
to put the politics aside and make healthcare work for all Californians," Lee said. California
was the first state to create a benefit exchange, which each state must do now under
ACA.
Lee pointed out that most Californians who have no coverage from their
employer or from Medicare or Medi-Cal will be eligible for sliding-scale
subsidies, making individual insurance policies affordable. Tellingly, the
subsidies will be open to individuals and families with incomes up to four
times the federal poverty guidelines.
