TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all necessary agreements, and any subsequent amendments, between the City of Long Beach and the State of California Health Benefits Exchange (also known as “Covered California”) in the amount of $125,000 for the period of August 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016, to facilitate outreach, enrollment, and retention into the insurance programs offered through Covered California. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
In 2010, the federal government enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which aims to increase the number of Americans with insurance and cut the overall costs of health care. Covered California was created by the State of California to develop an organized marketplace where eligible consumers could purchase health coverage. As of 2014, over 2.6 million Californians have qualified for federal financial assistance, and an additional 2.7 million qualified for assistance from guaranteed coverage through Covered California or from an insurance company in the individual market.
Covered California offers subsidized health care coverage in the form of a Premium Tax Credit and cost-sharing reductions to individuals and families with incomes between 138 percent and 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) guidelines. The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services (Health Department) is a Covered California Certified Enrollment Entity and, since October 2014, has conducted outreach and education to over 10,000 individuals and completed over 3,000 Covered California applications. The funding is to be used to expand outreach, enrollment, and retention activities to populations that continue to have high rates of uninsured. Those populations include, but are not limited to, Latino, African American, Asian American, young adults and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender populations. The Health Department will focus on the following groups: populations with limited English prof...
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