Political Rewind: Sacramentan Tries to Start New Political Party, State Slams Health Insurer for Rate Hike

Editor's Note: This article was created by aggregating articles from various news outlets covering California politics.

Sacramentan tries to start new moderate political party

Using a purple color scheme and bemoaning political polarization, a 30-year-old Midtown resident is trying to convince voters to abandon the Democrats and Republicans and join his California Moderate Party.

Ash Roughani, formerly of government reform group California Forward, released a video ad promoting his new party Thursday, The Sacramento Bee reports.

He told the Bee he hopes the state's new online registration system will help him quickly sign up independent voters.

State slams health insurer Aetna for 30 percent rate hike

The California Department of Health Insurance has for the first time deemed a health insurer's rate hike to be "unreasonable," criticizing Aetna for its plans to raise rates on small business owners by 30 percent over two years.

The state has no power to block the rate hike, however, The Orange County Register reports.

"I am disappointed that Aetna has decided to reject my request to refrain from its latest health insurance rate increases on small employers... (who) are struggling in this economy," Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said, according to the Register.

Third-World conditions plague unincorporated communities

Many unincorporated communities in California lack sewer systems, clean drinking water and other basic trappings of civilization, the non-profit journalism organization California Watch reported Friday.

About 1.8 million farmworkers and other low-income Californians live in such communities, according to California Watch.

“It’s like people are living in colonies of the United States,” Stanislaus County Latino community advocate Miguel Donoso told California Watch.

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