In October 2018, in the run up to the midterm elections, KFF invited a group of journalists with a strong focus on health policy and state health reform to participate in a week-long fellowship focused on California’s health care landscape and the national implications of the state-level policy work there. The consolidation of hospitals and health systems, health insurance coverage, reproductive and family planning, as well as state demographic and economic data, were themes throughout the week.

The site visits in San Francisco and Sacramento gave the journalists the opportunity to hear from a variety of experts and stakeholders on a number of issues, in particular how the state agencies have navigated health policy efforts in light of recent federal actions around the Affordable Care Act, state marketplaces, and Medicaid. The Director of California’s Department of Health Care Services, Jennifer Kent, as well as Mari Cantwell, the California State Medicaid Director, provided an overview of recent innovations and waivers in the state’s Medicaid program – MediCal — as well as their recent approval process with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Trump administration’s leadership.

The fellows also visited the state attorney general, Xavier Becerra, for a discussion on his office’s recent involvement in lawsuits with nationwide implications, including the Texas lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act. Peter Lee, the Executive Director of Covered California, provided an update on  expectations for Open Enrollment on the state marketplaces and the implications for recent federal actions around the ACA and insurance marketplaces on insurance coverage in the state. The journalists also had a working dinner with the Chief Medical Officer of Sutter Health and the CEO of the California Hospital Association for a conversation on health care costs and consolidation in the state.  One of the culminating sessions with members of the KFF Women’s Health Policy team and representatives from Essential Access Health and the National Women’s Law Center focused on the recent changes to federal funding of family planning, Medicaid, Title X, as well as the implications hospital consolidation could have on reproductive health.

Participating journalists:

• Emily Bazar, senior editor & columnist, Sacramento bureau, California Healthline/Kaiser Health News 
• Sammy Caiola, Health Care Reporter, Capital Public Radio 
• Victoria Colliver, Health Care Reporter, Politico, San Francisco bureau
  “Trump administration, Catholic nuns back in court over birth control rules” 
• April Dembosky, Health Reporter, The California Report, KQED 
• Dan Goldberg, state health reporter, Politico, New York bureau 
• Angela Hart, Political Reporter, Capitol Bureau, The Sacramento Bee 
• Ana B. Ibarra, California Healthline / Kaiser Health News, Sacramento bureau
  “Covered California Pops And Locks Into Enrollment Season”
• Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News, Sacramento bureau 
• Joanne Kenen, Executive Editor, Health, Politico
  “POLITICO Pulse: Covered California Just Wants to Dance”
• Alison Kodjak, Health Policy Correspondent, NPR, Washington, D.C. 
• Noam Levey, National Health Care Reporter, The Los Angeles Times, Washington D.C. 
  
• Melanie Mason, The Los Angeles Times
• Caitlin Owens, Health Reporter, Washington D.C. bureau, Axios
  “States are using Medicaid to target social needs”
  “In California’s blue utopia, liberal health care dreams stagnate“
  
• Julie Rovner, Chief Washington Correspondent, Kaiser Health News
  “What the Health? Episode 68: Republicans’ Preexisting Political Problem”
  
• Jeff Young, Senior Reporter Health Care, HuffPost, New York City bureau 
  
• Samantha Young, Kaiser Health News, Sacramento bureau