Assembly Health Committee Report

Yesterday in Assembly Health Committee, chaired by Assemblyman Dr. Richard Pan, met on deadline week, considering a range of legislation related to health reform, health consumer protections, and more.

AB1917(Gordon), sponsored by Health Access California and supported by several patient groups, passed to make prescription drug cost sharing more manageable for those with particularly expensive medicines. The bill would have patients spread out their prescription drug cost sharing (up to the annual out-of-pocket maximum) over the course of a treatment, rather than needing to pay the over $6,000 in a first payment.

Other bills that passed included AB1558(Hernandez), to provide more transparency on health care costs, and AB2533(Ammiano) on health plan contracting. Another bill of interest that passed was AB2400(Ridley-Thomas) that would have allowed doctors to decline to serve Covered California patients, until amendments were taken to remove the opposition of consumer and labor groups.

The bills now go to Assembly Appropriations Committee.