For my beat, I filed more than two dozen columns in 2014 that tracked ACA implementation, Health Policy proposals, study findings, and other relevant news to health policy leaders. Many of those stories took national-level news and made it real for Californians. For instance, I looked at whether a new Harvard study on the benefits of health insurance meant that California had saved thousands of lives by expanding Medicaid, or why two small health plans were bucking the trend and succeeding on the Covered California exchange. I debunked common myths about the ACA, and answered readers’ questions about narrow networks. But I also did influential national-level analysis –Â figuring out that many of the new health plans joining the ACA exchanges in the second year were run by hospitals, or that the health law’s payment pilots were largely sputtering, or that many states were running a major risk by not proactively preparing to set up an insurance exchange. These conclusions often intellectually scooped other publications, and my work was cited in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Republic, and elsewhere — big achievements for our small publication.
