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E-Edition
With open enrollment closed, the state’s health insurance market place announced a record-high number of subscribers to its programs and a record-low number of Californians without coverage.
Covered California said 345,711 residents signed up for a health plan and more than 1.6 million renewed for 2025 — a combined total of 1,979,504. This is the fourth consecutive increase since the federal government put enhanced premium tax credits into the American Rescue Plan in 2021. For the past two years, the state supplemented those subsidies with a cost-sharing reduction program.
Meanwhile, Covered California reported open enrollment began with an uninsured rate of 6.4%, compared with 17.5% when the marketplace opened in 2014. Since then, around 1 in 6 Californians (or 6.3 million) have had health policies through the exchange.
“The tremendous success during this open enrollment is the payoff from the work California has done for years to maximize the Affordable Care Act,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in the announcement. “California’s uninsured rate has continued to drop as Covered California has made it easier for consumers to find quality coverage at an affordable price.”
The federal subsidies expire at the end of the year unless extended. Covered California said its policyholders save $101 a month on premiums from these tax credits, including over 170,000 middle-income enrollees who were ineligible previously, and some consumers save as much as $395 a month.
“Without an extension for the enhanced subsidies, the loss of coverage could be significant in California,” said Jessica Altman, executive director of Covered California. “Every region and corner of the state would be impacted negatively — from small business owners and gig workers, to agricultural workers and residents working multiple jobs to make ends meet. It is imperative that federal actions are taken to keep these Americans enrolled.”
Milk production in California is down 5.7% from last year at this time, according to a report of January figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Pacific Region office in Sacramento.
The yield of 3.34 million pounds trails January 2024 total of 3.54 million pounds, with last month’s per-cow yield of 1,950 pounds also down, by 120 pounds, from the previous year.
Still, California leads the nation in number of cows and production.
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