Legislative Update From CMA's Center for Government Relations (August 10, 2010)
August 13, 2010, is the last day for fiscal committees to hear and report bills to either the Assembly or Senate Floor, so most of the legislative activity last week was seen in both of the Appropriations committees. Between the two hearings, 226 bills were assessed, and many were referred to the Suspense File, where bills with a state cost are re-evaluated, and many move no further.
Three of CMA's sponsored bills moved successfully this week. AB 2093 (M. Perez) on adequate vaccine reimbursement passed the Senate Appropriations committee on a vote of 7–1. AB 2533 (Fuentes), which requires disclosure of policies and procedures for any kind of health insurer physician rating system, passed the Senate Appropriations Committees on the consent calendar. AB 2248 (Hernandez), which addresses weaknesses in the accounting practice of counties for the EMS / Maddy Fund, was approved by the Senate on Thursday August 5th and will now return to the Assembly for one final concurrence vote before heading to the Governor for his consideration.
Many of the first round of bills on state implementation of federal healthcare reform were placed on Suspense. These include the two legislative vehicles to establish the Health Insurance Exchange in California, AB 1602 (J. Perez) and SB 900 (Alquist/Steinberg), market reform and coverage expansion bills, AB 1825 (De La Torre), AB 2244 (Feuer), SB 1088 (Price), and rate review / rate regulation bills, AB 591 (De La Torre), AB 2578 (Jones), and SB 1163 (Leno). AB 2470 (De La Torre), which protects patients from unlawful rescission of health insurance, was also placed on the Suspense File. These bills are the topic of intense behind-the-scenes stakeholder negotiations, with CMA at the table ardently representing the interests of physicians and their patients. Although federal health care reform is now the law of the land, effective implementation of these policies in California will take careful planning. We expect a lot of action and changes to these bills in the next two weeks.
As of Monday, August 9, 2010, the State's budget was 40 days late. The governor's office estimates that the fiscal crisis worsens at a rate of $52.3 million dollars per day. Last Tuesday, Democratic leaders in the Legislature presented a proposal to close the $19 billion gap, which included a tax swap (raising personal income taxes while lowering the State's sales tax), and an increase on the vehicle licensing fee. This proposal was firmly rejected by the Republicans, who oppose increasing taxes, calling the swap "fuzzy math." We will continue to follow the budget negotiations and provide updates as they occur.
August 31, 2010, is the last day for any bill to complete the legislative process. With hundreds of bills racing toward that goal, CMA's Government Relations team is gearing up for three weeks of intense advocacy on behalf of physicians in California.
For more information on these and other bills of interest to physicians, see CMA's Legislative Hot List.