Senate Bill 1034 repealed an insurance law (Assembly Bill 1083) that prohibited insurance companies from including waiting periods in excess of 60 days in their group health insurance contracts. Under the new law, California insurance companies are prohibited from applying any "waiting or affiliation period" under a group or individual health benefit plan. Because this new law applies to carriers and not to employers, California employers that are permitted under federal law (the ACA) to have a one-month orientation period and up to a 90-day waiting period are permitted to continue applying these ACA-compliant periods.
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