Individual health care coverage: enrollment periods.

Existing federal law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacts various health care coverage market reforms as of January 1, 2014. Among other things, PPACA requires each health insurance issuer that offers health insurance coverage in the individual or group market in a state to accept every employer and individual in the state that applies for that coverage and to renew that coverage at the option of the plan sponsor or the individual. Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan or health insurer, on and after October 1, 2013, to offer, market, and sell all of the plan's insurer's health benefit plans that are sold in the individual market for policy years on or after January 1, 2014, to all individuals and dependents in each service area in which the plan or insurer provides or arranges for the provision of health care services, as specified, but requires plans and insurers to limit enrollment in individual health benefit plans to specified open enrollment and special enrollment periods. Existing law requires a plan or insurer to provide an initial open enrollment period from October 1, 2013, to March 31, 2014, inclusive, and annual enrollment periods for plan years on or after January 1, 2015, from October 15 to December 7, inclusive, of the preceding calendar year. This bill would require a plan or insurer to provide an annual enrollment period for the policy year beginning on January 1, 2015, from November 15, 2014, to February 15, 2015, inclusive. Because a willful violation of that requirement by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.