SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California state lawmakers this 12 months are persevering with their progressive tilt on well being coverage with dozens of proposals together with a ban on a Froot Loops ingredient and free condoms for prime schoolers.
As states more and more fracture alongside partisan strains, California Democrats are stamping their supermajority on laws that they’ll take into account till they adjourn on the finish of August. But the price of these proposals will likely be a significant component given the enormity of the state’s deficit, at present estimated at between $38 billion and $73 billion.
Health Coverage
Lawmakers are once more contemplating whether or not to create a government-run, single-payer well being care system for all Californians. AB 2200 is Democratic Assembly member Ash Kalra’s second such try, after an identical invoice failed in 2022. The price ticket can be monumental, although proponents say there would even be associated financial savings. The excessive potential value left Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and others skeptical it might turn into legislation whereas the state faces a deficit.
AB 4 would require Covered California, the state’s medical insurance alternate, to supply medical insurance insurance policies to people who find themselves in any other case not in a position to receive protection due to their immigration standing, to the extent it will probably beneath federal legislation. That might ultimately result in subsidized insurance coverage premiums much like these provided in Colorado and Washington.
Medical Debt
Health care suppliers and assortment businesses can be barred from sharing sufferers’ medical debt with credit score reporting businesses beneath SB 1061. The invoice would additionally prohibit credit score reporting businesses from accepting, storing, or sharing any such info with out client consent. Last 12 months, the Biden administration introduced plans to develop federal guidelines barring unpaid medical payments from affecting sufferers’ credit score scores. California can be the third state to take away medical payments from client credit score stories.
Medi-Cal
The Medi-Cal program, which gives well being take care of low-income individuals, can be required to cowl medically supportive meals and diet beginning July 1, 2026, beneath AB 1975. The invoice builds on an current however restricted pilot program. The laws says Californians of shade may gain advantage from satisfactory meals and diet to fight largely preventable persistent well being situations, and it’s considered one of 14 measures sought by the California Legislative Black Caucus as a part of reparations for racial injustice.
More than 1.6 million California residents, disproportionately Latinos, have been kicked off Medi-Cal for the reason that state resumed annual eligibility checks that have been halted throughout the covid-19 pandemic. AB 2956 would have the state search federal approval to gradual these disenrollments by taking steps similar to letting individuals 19 and older hold their protection mechanically for 12 months.
Violence Prevention
An enhance in assaults on well being staff is prompting lawmakers to think about boosting legal penalties. In California, easy assault towards staff inside an ER is taken into account the identical as easy assault towards nearly anybody else, and carries a most punishment of a $1,000 high quality and 6 months in jail. In distinction, easy assault towards emergency medical staff within the area, similar to an EMT responding to a 911 name, carries most penalties of a $2,000 high quality and a 12 months in jail. AB 977 would set the identical most penalties for assaulting emergency well being care staff on the job, whether or not they’re within the area or an ER.
California might toughen penalties for interfering with reproductive well being care providers. Posting private info or images of a affected person or supplier can be a felony if considered one of them is injured in consequence. AB 2099 additionally boosts penalties for intimidation or obstruction.
Under SB 53, gun homeowners must lock up their weapons in state-approved safes or lockboxes the place they might be inaccessible to anybody however the proprietor or one other lawfully licensed consumer. Democratic Sen. Anthony Portantino, the invoice’s creator, says that will make it harder for anybody, together with kids, to use weapons to hurt themselves or others or use the weapons to commit crimes. Critics say it could make it more durable to entry the weapon when it’s wanted, similar to to counter a house invasion. Relatedly, AB 2621 and AB 2917 handle gun violence restraining orders.
Substance Use
The spike in drug overdoses has prompted a number of responses: AB 3073 would require the state’s public well being division to associate with native public well being businesses, wastewater therapy amenities, and others to pilot wastewater testing for traces of harmful medication in an effort to pinpoint drug sizzling spots and determine new medication. AB 1976 would require office first-aid kits to incorporate naloxone nasal spray, which can reverse opioid overdoses. And senators have proposed no less than 9 payments geared toward curbing overdose deaths, notably from the lethal artificial opioid fentanyl.
Youth Welfare
Under AB 2229, backed by a “Know Your Period” marketing campaign, faculty districts’ intercourse training curricula must embody menstrual well being. There was no registered opposition.
Public colleges must make free condoms out there to all pupils in grades 9 to 12 beneath SB 954, which might assist forestall undesirable pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, in line with the creator, Democratic Sen. Caroline Menjivar. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed an identical invoice final 12 months.
Reality present star Paris Hilton is backing a bipartisan invoice to require extra reporting on the therapy of youth in state-licensed short-term residential therapeutic applications. SB 1043 would require the state Department of Social Services to publish info on using restraints and seclusion rooms on a public dashboard.
California would develop its regulation of hemp merchandise, which have turn into more and more fashionable amongst youths as a solution to bypass the state’s adults-only restrictions on authorized hashish. AB 2223 would construct on a 2021 legislation that Assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry mentioned in hindsight didn’t go far sufficient.
Public colleges would, beneath AB 2316, usually be barred from offering meals containing pink dye 40, titanium dioxide, and different probably dangerous substances, that are at present utilized in merchandise together with Froot Loops and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. It’s Democratic Assembly member Jesse Gabriel’s follow-up to his laws final 12 months that tried to ban a chemical utilized in Skittles.
Women’s Health
AB 2515 would ban the sale of menstrual merchandise with deliberately added PFAS, often known as “forever chemicals.” PFAS, quick for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been linked to critical well being issues. Newsom vetoed a earlier try.
Public grade colleges and group faculties would, beneath AB 2901, have to supply 14 weeks of paid go away for pregnancies, miscarriages, childbirth, termination of pregnancies, or restoration. Newsom vetoed an identical invoice in 2019.
AB 2319 would enhance enforcement of a 2019 legislation geared toward decreasing the disproportionate fee of maternal mortality amongst Black girls and different pregnant girls of shade.
Social Media
Social media corporations might face substantial penalties in the event that they don’t do sufficient to guard kids, beneath AB 3172. The measure would enable monetary damages of as much as $1 million for every baby beneath age 18 who proves in courtroom they have been harmed, or 3 times the quantity of the kid’s precise damages. The trade opposes the invoice, calling it dangerous censorship.
Cyberbullies might face civil liabilities as much as $75,000 beneath SB 1504, and people damages may very well be sought by anybody. Under present legislation, damages are capped at $7,500 and could also be pursued solely by the state lawyer basic.
Wellness
Bosses may very well be fined for repeatedly contacting workers after working hours beneath AB 2751, a “right to disconnect” invoice patterned after related restrictions in 13 international locations. The invoice’s creator, Democratic Assembly member Matt Haney, mentioned regardless of the appearance of smartphones that “have blurred the boundaries between work and home life,” workers shouldn’t be anticipated to work across the clock. The measure is opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce.
Finally, Democrat Anthony Rendon, a long-serving state Assembly speaker, is spending his final 12 months within the chamber main a first-in-the-nation Select Committee on Happiness and Public Policy Outcomes. The committee isn’t planning any laws however intends to situation a report after lawmakers adjourn in August.
This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially unbiased service of the California Health Care Foundation.