California First to Set Standard Health Benefits

California’s health ben­e­fit exchange is the first in the nation to cre­ate stan­dard ben­e­fits designed to help peo­ple shop for insur­ance cov­er­age under the fed­eral health care over­haul. Peter Lee, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Cov­ered Cal­i­for­nia, announced the ben­e­fits Wednes­day. He said they would help con­sumers more eas­ily deter­mine what kind of cov­er­age they want to buy. Lee says the move will pre­vent insur­ers from play­ing a “shell game” and get peo­ple qual­ity care at lower costs.