Question: What happens if the federal grants to launch Covered California is not enough? Will California taxpayers have to foot the bill?

Answer: The Covered California health insurance marketplace is required to be self-sufficient without federal or state money by 2015. In fact, the state law establishing the Covered California expressly prohibits using state funds. Covered California’s continuing funding will come from participation fees for all qualified health plan (QHP) issuers of 3% of premiums in the individual exchange and 4% of premiums in the SHOP exchange. QHP issuers will recover their participation fee costs from policyholders in the form of premium increases.