This package of legislation builds on the progress California has made implementing and improving on the Affordable Care Act over the last decade, having led the nation with the biggest drop of the uninsured rate of any state. Our coalition of over 70 organizations seek additional and bold action to achieve a high quality health care system that is universal, affordable, and equitable to all Californians. These are steps California can take now, without the need for constitutional amendments, federal approvals or Acts of Congress–urgent actions that are complementary with longer-term goals and reforms.

COVERING ALL CALIFORNIANS TOWARDS UNIVERSAL ACCESS

  • AB 4 (Arambula): Removing Barriers to Covered California Based on Immigration Status, Toward #Health4All. Establishes a program to allow undocumented individuals to purchase health care coverage by authorizing Covered California to offer California Qualified Health Plans as a mirror to the plans currently offered on the exchange and builds a framework to provide state-based affordability assistance for undocumented individuals in future years. [Sponsored by California Immigrant Policy Center and Health Access California] Status: Held in Suspense
  • AB 2956 (Boerner): Protecting Medi-Cal Coverage for Californians. Allows people to keep their Medi-Cal coverage for a full 12 months, regardless of changes in their income. [Sponsored by Western Center on Law & Poverty, The Children’s Partnership, and Latino Coalition for a Healthy California] Status: Held in Suspense
  • SB 1236 (Blakespear) Medigap Protections. Ensures that people on Medicare Supplemental Insurance, known as Medigap, are protected from being penalized for having pre-existing medical conditions the same way all Americans are protected in the regular private health insurance markets. [Sponsored by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society] Status: Held in Suspense
  • SB 294 (Wiener): Automatic Review of Health Plan Denials of Child & Youth Mental Health Services. A lifesaving health plan oversight bill that will require automatic review–either through the grievance or Independent Medical Review (IMR) process–of all commercial insurance denials for youth mental health treatment. [Sponsored by Children Now] Status: Held in Suspense
  • AB 2466 (Carrillo) Timely Access to Medi-Cal Mental Health Services for Children, Youth. Ensures timely access standards are met for children and youth enrolled in Medi-Cal who are accessing mental and behavioral health care services. [Sponsored by The Children’s Partnership and National Health Law Program] Status: Held in Suspense
  • Budget: Continuous Coverage for Children 0-5 on Medi-Cal. In the 2022-23 budget, California was one of the first states to adopt a multi-year continuous Medi-Cal enrollment (MYCE) protection for young children. To meet the January 2025 planned start date for this policy, the legislature must greenlight implementation by including funding in the 2024-2025 budget for children 0-5 to continuously be enrolled in Medi-Cal without the need to renew their coverage every year until the age of 5. [Sponsored by The Children’s Partnership, Western Center on Law & Poverty, Children Now, Maternal and Child Health Access, National Health Law Program, March of Dimes, First 5] Status: Included in final budget.

 

ADVANCING EQUITY TO ADDRESS HEALTH DISPARITIES

  • AB 2319 (Wilson & Weber): Reducing Black Maternal Mortality through Implicit Bias Training. Aims to reduce the alarming and disproportionate maternal mortality rate of Black women and other pregnant persons of color by ensuring health care providers conduct evidence-based implicit bias training. [Sponsored with Attorney General Rob Bonta, Black Women for Wellness Action Project, Reproductive Freedom for All California, California Nurse-Midwives Association and the California Black Women’s Collective] Status: Governor
  • AB 3161 (Asm Bonta) The Equity in Health Care Act. Studies demonstrate women and communities of color are more likely to experience medical misdiagnosis or adverse outcomes due to discrimination and racism, and barriers often create unclear pathways for community members to seek justice when these cases occur. This bill provides tools to curb the impacts of discrimination, track trends of biased behaviors in hospital facilities, and work to improve trust in the health care system for all regardless of your race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, language, or income status. [Sponsored by California Pan Ethnic Health Network and Black Women for Wellness Action Project] Status: Governor
  • Budget: Medi-Cal reimbursement rate for Community Health Workers/Promotoras/Health Representatives (CHW/P/Rs).  Low Medi-Cal reimbursement rates have led to low utilization of services and prevented many CHW/P/Rs from continuing long-term work in critically underserved communities. Every health worker deserves a livable wage, especially community-based providers who support language access, cultural competency, and racial equity needs of California’s diverse communities. [Sponsored by California Pan Ethnic Health Network, the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, and The Children’s Partnership] Status: Included in final budget.

PROTECTING PATIENTS FROM HIGH MEDICAL COSTS

  • AB 3129 (Wood) Attorney General Merger Oversight on Private Equity Takeovers. Extends AG oversight to be able to approve, deny or approve with conditions, any private equity or hedge fund acquisition or change in control of these types, and review the transactions for the impacts on competition, quality, affordability and access to care. [Sponsored by AG Bonta] Status: Governor
  • AB 2297 (Friedman) Medical Debt Protection. Alleviates the financial stress caused by medical debt by prohibiting the use of home liens to collect unpaid medical bills from financially eligible patients and clarifies eligibility rules to ensure low and moderate-income Californians receive much needed medical debt relief. [Sponsored by Western Center on Law & Poverty and Bet Tzedek] Status: Governor
  • AB 2753 (Ortega): Rehabilitative and Habilitative Services: Durable Medical Equipment and Services. Private health plans regularly exclude or severely limit coverage for durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, hearing aids or ventilators, causing people to go without medically necessary devices or obtaining inferior ones that put their health and safety at risk.  This bill will clarify that durable medical equipment is a covered essential health benefit in California-regulated health plans and policies when prescribed by a doctor for rehabilitative or habilitative purposes. [Sponsored by Western Center on Law & Poverty and National Health Law Program] Status: Held in Suspense
  • AB 2258 (Zbur) Protecting Access to Preventive Services. AB 2258 codifies longstanding federal guidance requiring health plans to cover services that are integral to recommended preventive care – including HIV and STI screenings for PrEP and cervical cancer screenings – without requiring patients to pay out-of-pocket. [Sponsored by California Department of Insurance, Equality California, Los Angeles LGBT Center, and San Francisco AIDS Foundation] Status: Governor