- Health Access 2024 Legislative Scorecard analyzes how California legislators voted on bills that improve consumer protections and remove financial barriers to accessing health care for millions of California health consumers.
- With the addition of some contentious health care bills scored this year, less than half (45%) of State Senators and Assemblymembers scored 100%, earning the designation of “Health Care Consumer Champion.”
- Health Access honors Assemblymember Dr. Jim Wood (former) with the first ever Health Care Consumer Superstar award for his many years of service leading major health policy reform in the California State Legislature.
SACRAMENTO, CA – As the California Legislature reconvenes this week, Health Access California, the statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition, releases its annual Legislative Scorecard highlighting key bills impacting health care consumers in the 2024 legislative session. The scorecard details how state policymakers voted on key bills to enhance and protect coverage, reduce health care costs, and improve quality and equity in our health care system, with 54 legislators earning the distinction of “Health Care Consumer Champion.”
This year Health Access awarded its first ever “Health Care Consumer Superstar” to former Assemblymember Dr. Jim Wood who served as chair of the Assembly Health Committee for over eight years and led the passage of many significant health reforms on behalf of health care consumers over his tenure.
“California has made historic progress over the last decade, covering more Californians and making care more affordable than ever and this scorecard reflects the latest improvements to our health care system in 2024,” said Amanda McAllister-Wallner, interim executive director of Health Access California. “While we face difficult headwinds in 2025 under a Trump Administration, this year’s legislative wins strengthened the health care system we all rely on and further fortified our state’s efforts to ensure more universal, affordable, and equitable health care for all Californians.”
This year’s scorecard produced a lower number of “Health Care Champions” than in years past, due to several contentious bills scored, such as AB 3129 that would have placed greater oversight on private equity mergers in our health care system. But when given an opportunity to publicly vote on key health care legislation in committee or on the Assembly or Senate floor, this report shows the percentage of time lawmakers sided with California health care consumers, often against big health care corporations. Among the bills scored, 11 were a part of the Care4All California package of legislation. Since 2018, the #Care4AllCA campaign of over 70 organizations has built on the success of the Affordable Care Act towards universal coverage, leveraging what is achievable in California without the need for significant federal approval.
Senators that received 100% scores this year include: Allen, Atkins, Blakespear, Caballero, Cortese, Dodd, Durazo, Hurtado, Laird, McGuire, Min, Padilla, Skinner, Smallwood-Cuevas, Stern, Umberg, Wahab, and Wiener.
Assemblymembers that received 100% scores this year include: Addis, Aguiar-Curry, Bennett, Berman, Bonta, Bryan, Calderon, Wendy Carrillo, Cervantes, Connolly, Garcia, Gipson, Gomez Reyes, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Holden, Irwin, Jackson, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Lee, Low, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Muratsuchi, Papan, Pellerin, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Santiago, Ting, Ward, and Wood.
Of these 54 “Health Care Consumer Champions,” 40 of them (75%) are returning for the 2025-2026 legislative session.
2024 Legislation scored includes the following bills:
- Provider Directory Accuracy and Accountability: AB 236 (Holden)
- Medi-Cal Medically Supportive Food and Nutrition Interventions: AB 1975 (Bonta)
- Social Determinants of Health Screening and Outreach: AB 2250 (Weber)
- Cost-sharing for preventive services and STI: AB 2258 (Zbur)
- Hospital and Emergency Physician Fair Pricing: AB 2297 (Friedman)
- California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act: AB 2319 (Wilson)
- Covered California Emergency Rulemaking Extension: AB 2435 (Maienschein)
- Timely Access to Medi-Cal Mental Health Services for Children: AB 2466 (Carrillo)
- Rehabilitative and Habilitative Services: AB 2753 (Ortega)
- Medi-Cal Redeterminations: AB 2956 (Boerner)
- Health Care Consolidation: AB 3129 (Wood)
- Bias and Discrimination in Health Facilities: AB 3161 (Bonta)
- Automatic IMR Referrals for Youth Behavioral Health: SB 294 (Wiener)
- Fertility Coverage: SB 729 (Menjivar)
- SOGI Data Collection: SB 957 (Wiener)
- Medical Debt: SB 1061 (Limón)
- Medigap Protections: SB 1236 (Blakespear)
See the full 2024 Health Access scorecard here.
###
Press inquires can be directed to:
Rachel Linn Gish, rlinngish@health-access.org