SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jessica Altman took over in March as chief executive officer of Covered California, and even as she was settling into a new home in Sacramento she also was making the rounds with congressional leaders to drive home just how much Californians want access to health insurance.
The greatest barrier to getting it is all too often the cost, Altman said in her first interview with The Sacramento Bee, and nothing underscored that more than the record enrollment Covered California saw last year when new federal assistance in the American Rescue Plan slashed premiums for California enrollees by an average of 20%.
Enrollment in plans offered on California’s state-based marketplace surged to 1.8 million, according to Covered California records, an increase of more than 150,000 people.
