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ByJudyLin TheAssociatedPress SACRAMENTO Califor- nians buying individual health plans on the state's exchange will see their premiums rise by an aver- age of 4.2 percent in 2015, about half the increase the industry has seen in the past three years, officials announced Thursday. Peter Lee, executive di- rector of Covered Cali- fornia, said the proposed rates suggest the state has been able to slow down health care costs while re- ducing the number of un- insured as the exchange enters its second enroll- ment year under President Barack Obama's health overhaul. "It's good news for Cali- fornians, it's good news for the Affordable Care Act," Lee said. Covered California en- rolled 1.4 million people during its first year, and Lee said with "modest" rate increases, the state should be in good shape to enroll at least 1 million in its second year. The next sign-up period will run from Nov. 15 to Feb. 15. According to the ex- change, about 16 percent of consumers will see their rates stay flat or go down. About a third will see an increase of less than 5 per- cent, and 36 percent will see their premiums go up between 5 percent and 8 percent. And 13 percent will see premium increases of more than 8 percent. Lee acknowledged that even a slight increase is a burden for many people, but he said 88 percent of those enrolled in Covered California receive a tax subsidy. An individual can make about $47,000 and a family of four can make up to $95,400 to be eligi- ble for some kind of pre- mium assistance. "Covered California and the Affordable Care Act have not made health care inexpensive in Amer- ica," he said. "What we've done is to give a leg up to people to make it afford- able." Ten health plans are re- turning to the exchange, indicating the insurance companies are profiting from the system. Lee said the exchange will look to expand next year. Health care advocates welcomed Thursday's an- nouncement, saying it shows the federal law is helping to slow down run- away insurance rates. "The number of unin- sured and the skyrocket- ing of health premiums were for years seen as in- solvable problems," said Anthony Wright, execu- tive director of Health Ac- cess California, a health care advocacy group. "The recent surveys and studies and new rates an- nounced today, suggest that while these prob- lems are not solved, Cal- ifornia is making signifi- cant progress." Lee said the state is working with participat- ing health plans to re- spond to consumer com- plaints about being unable to access doctors in their networks and outdated plan directories. State health regulators are currently investigat- ing Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Califor- nia based on a pattern of complaints it has received, and a final report is ex- pected before Nov. 15 when enrollment opens, Depart- ment of Managed Health Care spokesman Rodger Butler said. California set up its health exchange as an ac- tive purchaser, which al- lows it to negotiate with insurers, decide which health plans get to partic- ipate in the individual and small business markets, and to set requirements for participating plans. ACA Californianstoseehike in health plan costs By Juliet Williams The Associated Press SACRAMENTO The Repub- lican candidate for Califor- nia governor said Thurs- day he spent a week liv- ing as a homeless person in Fresno to highlight the disparity between the gov- ernor's claim that the state is making an economic comeback and the reality faced by the working poor in the nation's most popu- lous state. Neel Kashkari, a million- aire and former Goldman Sachs banker who is far behind Gov. Jerry Brown in pre-election polls, re- leased a short documen- tary about the six nights he spent sleeping in parking lots and on park benches, and wrote about his expe- rience in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal. Kashkari, 41, said he had hoped to find work and stay in low-priced motels, but he was turned away from doz- ens of businesses where he offered to wash dishes, sweep floors, pack boxes and cook meals after tak- ing a bus from Los Ange- les to Fresno with $40 in his pocket. He eventually turned to a homeless shel- ter for food. Kashkari acknowledged that his experiment gave him "just a taste" of the struggles faced by poor people and said he could not truly understand their plight because he knew his situation was only tempo- rary. Still, he said he wanted to force a discussion about poverty. "Gov. Brown is not talk- ing about poverty," Kash- kari said at a news confer- ence outside a Sacramento food bank. "He's not talking about unemployment in our state. He's not talking about our failing schools. He's de- clared a California come- back." Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury official who helped lead the federal bank bail- out at the height of the re- cession, also criticized the media for failing to chal- lenge the Democratic gover- nor about endemic poverty in some parts of the state amid an economic boom in others, such as Silicon Val- ley. Dan Newman, a spokes- man for Brown's campaign, said he was having diffi- culty reconciling Kashkari's "bizarre campaign stunt" with his assistance for big banks. "If one truly cared about the homeless and had $700 billion to spend, would he give it all to big banks and ignore families struggling to stay in their homes?" Newman wrote in an email. California's unemploy- ment rate fell to 7.3 percent in June, higher than the na- tional average of 6.1 percent, but it remained at 9.8 per- cent in the Central Valley city of Fresno. Still strug- gling with fallout from the recession, the Central Val- ley has also been hit hard by the state's epic drought, which has fallowed fields and left many day laborers without work in the region. In the agriculture-de- pendent city of Mendota 35 miles west of Fresno, un- employment is 29.8 per- cent. Yet a tech boom in the San Francisco Bay Area 150 miles west has fueled mas- sive growth, pushing the median home price above $1 million for the first time last month. In San Mateo, south of San Francisco, un- employment is just 3.3 per- cent. Brown has touted what he calls a California come- back, saying in his January State of the State address, "And what a comeback it is: A million new jobs since 2010, a budgetary surplus in the billions and a minimum wage rising to $10 an hour." He did not directly mention poverty. Asked for specifics on his plan to solve poverty in California, Kashkari said he would try to create jobs through "pro-growth eco- nomic policies" such as fewer regulations, invest- ing in an overdue water storage solution, allowing greater development of oil and natural gas resources, and bringing back manu- facturing jobs. Kashkari wrote that five days into his job search, "I asked myself: What would solve my problems? Food stamps? Welfare? An in- creased minimum wage? No. I needed a job." GOVERNOR RACE Candidate goes homeless to show economic gap RICHPEDRONCELLI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Neel Kashkari, right, who later won the Republican nomination for governor of California, talks with Kenneth Whitaker, 62, at Loaves and Fishes homeless shelter in Sacramento on Dec. 4, 2013. By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Califor- nia prison employees were pressured into falsifying suicide-watch records at the state's troubled new Stock- ton medical facility, endan- gering inmates and violat- ing standards imposed in response to federal court orders, according to the union representing psychi- atric technicians. The union told The As- sociated Press that employ- ees were instructed by su- pervisors to routinely sign log sheets certifying they had followed rules stipulat- ing they check on inmates in the mental health crisis unit every 12 to 15 minutes when they had not done so because they were too busy with other work. Two work- ers were disciplined when video surveillance showed that they lied. One worker won her job back earlier this month when the video recording backed up her story that she was busy performing other required tasks when she was supposed to be checking to ensure inmates were OK, said Steve Bas- soff, attorney for the Cali- fornia Association of Psy- chiatric Technicians. The second employee is await- ing a hearing in September before the State Personnel Board. "It illustrates the prob- lem that we're talking about," Bassoff said of the video. "They had other du- ties they were performing, so they essentially couldn't be two places at once." The union says inade- quate staffing is prompt- ing shortcuts that circum- vent requirements meant to protect inmates. Joyce Hayhoe, a spokes- woman for the federal court-appointed receiver who oversees prison medi- cal care in California, said she can't discuss personnel issues, "but obviously any falsification isn't appropri- ate and won't be tolerated." Officials from her of- fice and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilita- tion plan to meet Monday to discuss policies at the crisis unit, Hayhoe said. The $1 billion Stockton facility opened a year ago and has nearly 3,000 beds. It mainly treats sick and mentally ill inmates. Medi- cal admissions were halted in January amid what fed- eral receiver J. Clark Kelso described as serious, sys- temic problems with care. Admissions were resumed last week. The mental health crisis unit serves inmates deemed most at risk of harming themselves or others. One of the psychiatric techs who works there is respon- sible for passing out med- ications, while a second is responsible for checking on the welfare of inmates, among other duties. Union representative Ann Lyles said she has been complaining about staffing since May. She was not aware that any inmates harmed or killed themselves during the time that they were not be- ing observed as often as re- quired. Corrections depart- ment spokeswoman Dana Simas could not immedi- ately say if any inmates harmed themselves during that period, but otherwise did not comment and re- ferred questions to the re- ceiver's office. A consultant hired by Kelso recently recom- mended the prison add an additional psychiatric tech- nician on each shift at the crisis unit. STOCKTON Union: Prison staff told to fake checks BACKTOSCHOOLPROJECTPRESENTS Sunday, August 10, 2014 P.O.Box292,RedBluff,CA96080 530.529.4074 • www.backtoschoolproject.com • Free haircuts for school-age children providedbylicensedhairstylists • Free food donated by Cornerstone Community Bank • Free professional photographs by Studio 530 Photography • Live music • Children's games • Information booths 744 Main Street, Red Bluff SOAP SALE 5 for $25 (IndividualPrice:$6.99) MongolianBBQ Mongolian BBQ K K ahunas ahunas AmericanStyle It's all about the choices! 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