Daily Business Report-Dec. 11, 2018
Obamacare has led to a record number of Californians having medical coverage. (Credit: CALmatters)
State explores how to counteract end of
Obamacare mandate, or risk a million more
Californians without health insurance
By Elizabeth Aguilera | CALmatters
In a scramble to keep people enrolled in health care plans, what did New Jersey, Vermont and the District of Columbia do earlier this year that California has not done?
They began requiring that their residents carry health coverage or face a state penalty for going without it. Such “individual mandates” aim to replace the federal mandate—perhaps the most controversial but essential part of the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare —that sought to force people to sign-up for health insurance or pay a tax penalty. The Republican Congress and the Trump administration have repealed that federal penalty, effective next year.
The clock is ticking. Obamacare has led to a record number of Californians having medical coverage. But a new study warns that if the state does nothing to counteract the Trump administration’s moves to undermine Obamacare, up to 1 million more Californians could be without health insurance within the next five years.
What’s kept California from enacting its own mandate?
Some state Democratic leaders are wary of enacting a state mandate without also making health insurance cheaper for Californians.
“Providing subsidies is a better reality for members of our community than providing penalties,” said Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula, a Fresno Democrat who co-chaired the select committee on universal healthcare that conducted town halls across the state last summer. “It’s the carrot versus the stick.”
Sacramento State Sen. Richard Pan, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Health Committee, said the Legislature is focused on keeping the state’s insurance market exchange, known as Covered California, strong.
Some 2 million Californians buy health coverage through the exchange, which provides federal subsidies to low-income purchasers. “We are going to do what we can in California to stabilize the insurance market, to do what we can to make health insurance, particularly on Covered California, affordable,” said Pan, who has not yet endorsed any particular remedy. “We are up against a federal administration that is doing the opposite and forcing people to pay higher premiums.
“As we look at options, like do we want to do an individual mandate, we also need to recognize part of what is driving that is not only the removal of the federal mandate, but also actions taken to increase insurance premiums,” said Pan.
Since the Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2013, the state’s uninsured rate has dropped from 20 percent to 7 percent. Currently 3.4 million Californians are uninsured, undocumented immigrant adults making up the majority of that group.
But without more aggressive state intervention to counter Washington’s retreat from the program, an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 more Californians under 65 will be uninsured by 2023, according to the new study from the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
A mandate and state subsidies are among options the Legislature will be exploring to combat the expected exodus from insurance. But both are controversial. An Economist/YouGov poll found that 66 percent of Americans oppose a mandate. And although a few other states such as Vermont and Massachusetts do offer state subsidies, in California state subsidies could cost up to an estimated $500 million, at a time when an incoming Democratic governor and Democratic supermajorities in the Legislature have promised pricey programs such as universal healthcare and universal preschool.
So far Covered California enrollment, now underway through Jan. 15, is meeting projections—with a big caveat. As of the end of November, more than 90,000 newly insured people signed up, said Peter Lee, its executive director. But those projections already were lowered by 10 to 12 percent compared to last year because it was unknown what effect the removal of the penalty would have on sign-ups.
“There’s no question that a penalty imposed on individuals for whom health insurance is affordable is a good policy,” said Lee, who said he would follow whatever rules the Legislature adopts. “The penalty encourages people to participate in a system that, if they don’t, we all bear the cost. And it encourages people to do the right thing for themselves.”
Covered California is working on a report commissioned by the Legislature on how to best bolster the system. It’s due in February, and Lee said a variety of options are on the table including a mandate, expanding subsidies and using state money to lower premiums, a process called reinsurance.
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Todd Gloria co-authors Assembly bill
to bring back redevelopment agencies
Times of San Diego
Assemblyman Todd Gloria is co-authoring a bill to bring back redevelopment agencies in California in an effort to build more affordable housing. Assembly Bill 11 would allow cities and counties to create agencies that could use property-tax financing to fund affordable housing and infrastructure projects. The bill would allow financing similar to that used by the former redevelopment agencies dissolved by Gov. Jerry Brown during the Great Recession.
“California’s housing crisis is the most pressing issue facing our state. It is interconnected with every challenge facing California today — income inequality, traffic congestion, climate change and more. We need a more robust funding source to construct more affordable homes, and AB 11 is that source,” said Gloria, a Democrat who represents the 78th District in central San Diego County.
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Qualcomm granted preliminary
injunctions against Apple in China
Qualcomm Inc. announced that the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in China has granted the company’s request for two preliminary injunctions against four Chinese subsidiaries of Apple Inc., ordering them to immediately cease infringing upon two Qualcomm patents through the unlicensed importation, sale and offers for sale in China of the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. The two patents were previously found to be valid by SIPO, the Chinese patent office.
The patents enable consumers to adjust and reformat the size and appearance of photographs, and to manage applications using a touch screen when viewing, navigating and dismissing applications on their phones. Additional actions seeking similar relief for Apple’s infringement of other Qualcomm patents are pending in China and other jurisdictions around the world.
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Law School Admissions Council collaborates
with Microsoft on Law School Admissions Test
The Law School Admission Council announced a broad technology collaboration with Microsoft Corp. that will include the use of thousands of Microsoft Surface Go tablets as the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) transitions to a digital format beginning with the July 2019 LSAT test.
To facilitate the transition to the Digital LSAT starting July 2019, the Admissions Council is procuring thousands of Surface Go tablets that will be loaded with custom software and locked down to ensure the integrity of the exam process and security of the test results.
The Admissions Council also said it plans to separate the writing section of the LSAT from the other portions of the test, which are multiple-choice sections designed to assess logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, and reading comprehension. Currently, every LSAT administration includes a 35-minute writing section that follows the multiple-choice sections. Starting with the June 2019 LSAT administration, the writing sample will be separated from the LSAT and administered on a secure online platform. This change will result in several benefits for test takers, including shortening the testing day, allowing candidates to type their essays on a keyboard, instead of writing it by hand, and making it possible for test takers to complete their essay at a time and place of their choosing. In addition, candidates who take the LSAT more than once will not have to complete an essay each time they take the test.
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Women in ‘Leap to Confidence’
program to graduate Wednesday
Twenty women overcoming domestic violence, homelessness, and trauma – sometimes all three – will become part of a milestone graduation on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in East Village. That’s when the “Leap to Confidence” program celebrates its 50th graduation ceremony.
Leap to Confidence is a personal leadership workshop offered at no cost to women emerging from major life challenges to help them reach their greatest potential.
Jill Steeves graduated from the very first Leap to Confidence program in 2011. Steeves, who had been homeless and living on the streets of San Diego for 10 years, is the ultimate success story. When she finally reached her breaking point, she sought help from Father Joe’s Villages. Steeves is no longer recognizable as the alcoholic homeless woman she once was. After regaining belief in herself through Leap to Confidence, she became employed and today is a property manager at a complex for previously homeless seniors.
Steeves shared this message with the women at the launch of class number 50. “Confidence is everything. I use these tools every single day. All of the things I was ashamed of are an asset to me now. They make me good at my job today. This is a good place to start it’s where I got my life back.”
“Women in transition, especially those coming out of domestic abuse, addiction, and homelessness, need to know that they can start over and make new choices,” said Dana Bristol-Smith, founder of Leap to Success. “They also need to know that there is support to help them create positive futures—no matter what they’ve experienced in the past.”
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Casa Familiar to break ground on
San Ysidro mixed-use project
Casa Familiar will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at 9 a.m. Thursday for Living Rooms at the Border, a 13,469-square-food mixed use project in San Ysidro.
The economic development project also contains 10 units of affordable housing and is less than a mile from the U.S.-Mexico Border and includes expansion space for Casa Familiar’s immigration services and the El K-Fe Barista Youth Training Program. The project also includes the restoration of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, built in 1927, and its transformation into the El Salon multi-media theater performing space in partnership with Teatro Máscara Mágica.
Living Rooms at the Border was designed by architect Teddy Cruz (Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman), professor of public culture and urbanism at UC San Diego. In partnership with UC San Diego’s Center on Global Justice, Living Rooms will incorporate a UC San Diego Border Community Station. The Station will engage UC San Diego’s faculty, students, and research institutions with the unique culture, and people of the San Ysidro-Tijuana border community.
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Personnel Announcements
Jojo Seva joins Mission Federal Credit Union
Mission Federal Credit Union has named Jojo Seva as its new chief information officer. Seva comes with more than 20 years of experience and is a recognized industry leader in core banking system technology, artificial intelligence, enterprise digital transformation and information security.
Seva has been the chief information officer at NEFCU on Long Island, New York and Coast Hills Credit Union in Central California. He also held executive roles at Unify Financial Credit Union and Santa Ana Federal Credit Union.
Seva is considered to be an industry change agent with a laser-focus on operational efficiency and realization of member value through innovation. One of his most recent accomplishments was the implementation of NEFCU’s member-account integration with both Amazon Alexa and Google Home virtual assistant platforms. NEFCU is one of the first in the country to have both capabilities.
Seva volunteers his time to conduct community seminars on cybersecurity, social engineering awareness and ID-theft prevention. For the last five years, he also has served as a judge at University of California, Irvine’s student software and hardware design competitions.
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Chris Ryall rejoins IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, a division of IDW Media Holdings, announced that its former Chief Creative Officer and Editor-In-Chief, Chris Ryall, is returning to the company as president, publisher and chief creative officer. Ryall, formerly part of the editorial division at Skybound Entertainment, will be charged with ongoing creative expansion efforts within the company, as well as continuing to work closely with partners and licensors. Greg Goldstein will be stepping down as president and publisher.
Ryall originally joined IDW Publishing in 2004 as the company’s editor-in-chief. In 2010, he was named as the company’s first chief creative officer. During his initial stint with the company, Ryall oversaw the acquisition of licensed titles such as Transformers, Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and dozens of others. He also served as editor on hundreds of titles and, alongside creators Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, helped develop the acclaimed, Eisner Award-winning Locke & Key, currently in development as a Netflix television series.
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Stephanie Jimenez promoted to chief
operations officer at First Associates
First Associates announce the promotion of Stephanie Jimenez to chief operations officer. Jimenez joined the First Associates team three and a half years ago, and has been overseeing and optimizing operations at the company ever since.
“Stephanie is one of the most valuable and prolific players on our senior management team,” said David Johnson, CEO. “The Operations process and protocols she has implemented during her tenure have been instrumental in our ongoing growth and success. We are thrilled to offer her this well-deserved promotion and excited to see what she brings to the table in the future.”
First Associates opened its new state-of-the-art headquarters and call center in San Diego last week to support continued innovation, technology, scalability and quality service for their roster of industry-leading clients. Jimenez led that project to successful fruition.
