Leader of California's Muscular Obamacare Exchange to Step Down

Peter Lee, who has steered California’s Affordable Care Act marketplace since late 2011 and helped mold it into a model of what the federal health care law could achieve, announced Thursday he will leave his post in March. As executive director of Covered California, Lee has worked closely with the administrations of Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to expand health coverage to millions of people who don’t get it through an employer or government program, most of them aided by income-based financial assistance from the state or federal government. Over 1.6 million people are now enrolled in plans through the exchange, which has covered 5.3 million Californians since it started selling health plans. Lee lobbied fiercely to fight efforts by the Trump administration and Republicans to repeal the ACA, known popularly as Obamacare. Those efforts appear dead following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to uphold the law for the third time. ‘œThe really terrific thing, and you can’t say this of every leader, is that Peter is leaving the organization in a position where it is still poised to have the success it has had recently,’� said Dr. Mark Ghaly, who chairs the Covered California board and is secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. The board will launch a national search for Lee’s successor. The long runway to his departure ‘œgives us time to cast a wide net and find a leader who understands the history of this organization but also has the vision of where we can go,’� Ghaly said. Lee said he was leaving largely for personal reasons, including the deaths of his mother, Sharon Girdner, and his uncle, Dr. Philip R. Lee. The latter was part of the original Medicare brain trust under President Lyndon Johnson, and the younger Lee described him as a health policy mentor. Lee’s father and grandfather were also deeply involved in health care policy. The past two years have prodded him to reflect, he said. ‘œCovid reminds you that life’s too short. It’s a good time to say, ‘˜What else do I want to do?”� But, at 62, he has no intention of retiring. In his next job, Lee said, he wants to tackle what he believes are flaws in employer-based health insurance that leave many workers, especially low-wage earners, at financial risk if they get sick. He said he has no idea whether he’ll land in the private sector, a nonprofit or government. First, he plans to take time off to travel and think about his next move. Covered California’s enrollment is at its highest level since the exchange opened for business – credited partly to longer enrollment periods due to covid and the expansion of federal premium assistance, at least through 2022, under the American Rescue Plan Act. The expanded federal subsidies were based on California’s first-in-the-nation state-funded financial aid, which – with Lee’s ardent support and implementation – extended subsidized coverage well into the middle class. The percentage of Californians who don’t have insurance has dropped sharply, from 17% before the ACA began expanding coverage in 2014 to 7% now – mostly due to the expansion of Medicaid rather than the Covered California marketplace. Those who have worked with Lee credit him for innovations that transcend the provisions of Obamacare and have either set California apart or served as templates for other states. Covered California, unlike many state exchanges, has standardized health plan designs, so that plans within each coverage level offer the same services with the same deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs.