Health Access California Releases 2017 Legislative Scorecard

As we start a new legislative year in California, Health Access California is releasing its 2017 legislative scorecard, to spotlight how legislators voted on last year’s landmark bills to protect health care in California. Despite epic federal threats, the 2017 legislative session was a productive year, and we passed laws on prescription drug prices, continuity of care protections, and continued the progress we’ve made with Medi-Cal and Covered California.

Over the full 2017 session, we were proud to have 14 Senators and 25 Assemblymembers vote 100% with California’s health care consumers. Take a look at the scorecard, and see how your elected officials stack up: www.health-access.org/scorecard2017. The legislative scorecards for 2016 and 2015 are also available.

Click here find out who your Assemblymember and State Senator are!

Health Access appreciates the many legislators who stood up to industry pressure and passed landmark legislation to protect patients. Californians should be proud of new patient protection laws enacted, including: transparency in prescription drug price increases, preserving the 90-day open enrollment period in Covered California, and providing continuity of care protections to consumers whose plans abandon the marketplace.

The scorecard includes still-pending patient protection bills from last year that would provide greater oversight over health insurance mergers, hospital consolidations, prescription drug company practices, other drivers of increased health care costs, and even establish a universal, single-payer health care system. We expect to work on these bills and many new pieces of legislation, and will need your advocacy to get legislative support.

Our Advocacy Going Into 2018:

2018 is going to be an important year, and in order to continue the progress of getting affordable, quality health care for all Californians, we need your help in 3 ways:

  1. Continue the #Fight4OurHealth, and prepare for the mother of all Medicaid battles: We know that Congressional leadership is intent on continuing to undermine our health care system in 2018. Whether they try another form of ACA repeal, or “entitlement reform” to cut or cap Medicaid and Medicare, we need to show the impacts and keep the pressure on our policymakers.
  2. Protect patients from the continued attacks on our coverage: We’ve implemented and improved on the ACA in California, and must continue to take state action against the administrative attacks of the federal government. Whether it is limiting the substandard “junk” coverage that President Trump is promoting, or preventing premium hikes, our state policymakers must find ways to protect California consumers from the full impacts of these federal attacks.
  3. Take new steps to ensuring universal coverage for all Californians and a reformed system: The ACA enabled California to take a gigantic step in bringing us closer to universal coverage. Even in the absence of a willing federal government, California still has many options to bring us closer to 100% coverage. We remain committed to improving affordability assistance in the individual market, controlling cost in our health care system, and expanding access to #Health4All in Medi-Cal.