The Assembly Health Committee, chaired by Assemblymember Richard Pan met today and heard several pieces of legislation of interest to health care advocates. Here’s a quick report from Sawait Hezchias-Seyoum:
Perhaps the most contested bill heard today was SB 1000 (Monning), a bill that would require safety warning on sugar sweetened beverages. Most Members of the committee agreed sugar sweetened beverages contribute to the obesity and diabetes epidemic, however the majority of the With signficant industry opposition, Members held off on voting for the bill, stating were not convinced that safety warning labels are the solution.
Other bills were passed by the Assembly Health Committee:
* SB 204 (Corbett) on Prescription Drug Labeling passed out with 13 votes.
* SB 959 (Hernandez) a clean-up bill for half dozen major pieces of legislation on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act passed out with 19 votes.
* SB 1124 (Hernandez) which would limit Medi-Cal estate claims recovery to inpatient nursing home care for those over age 55 passed out with 17 votes.
* SB 1340 (Hernandez) which would eliminate gag clauses in contracts between all types of health care providers and health plans or insurers passed out with 15 votes.
* SB 1176 (Steinberg) which puts the burden on the health plan or insurer to track out of pocket costs and reimburse the consumer if their cost sharing exceeds the annual out of pocket limit was presented by Senator Ed Hernandez and passed out with 14 votes.