This bill designates April 2026 as Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month in California. It directly affects state officials and the public by formally recognizing the importance of raising awareness for this specific health condition. The primary mechanism is a legislative proclamation that appears in the state statutes to mark the month. This action serves as an official acknowledgment of the disease without changing laws or funding.
This bill designates the month of March 2026 as Kidney Month in California to raise awareness about chronic kidney disease. It highlights the importance of early detection and screening, noting that many people with the condition are unaware they have it. The resolution aims to educate the public on prevention and the risks associated with kidney failure, particularly among marginalized communities.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in the state. Existing law grants the University of California exclusive jurisdiction in public higher education over, among other things, graduate instruction in the profession of medicine. Existing law establishes the University of California Kern County Medical Education Endowment Fund in the State Treasury. Upon appropriation by the Legislature, existing law requires moneys in the endowment fund to be allocated to the University of California to support the annual operating costs for the development, operation, and maintenance of a branch campus of an existing University of California School of Medicine in the County of Kern, to conduct a feasibility study related to that campus, and to generate funding through investment earnings for the support of medical education in the San Joaquin Valley. Existing law also requires moneys in the endowment fund to be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature and a determination by the Controller of sufficient funds in the endowment fund, to cover the University of California's estimated costs of applying for and obtaining approval and accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, as provided. This bill would, if the office of the President of the University of California has not taken formal, verifiable steps to establish a school of medicine in the County of Kern by July 1, 2027, additionally authorize the Trustees of the California State University, acting through California State University, Bakersfield, and the Board of Trustees of the Kern Community College District to establish a school of medicine in the County of Kern, as provided. The bill would authorize the establishment of a unit of local government, known as the Kern Medical Education Authority, to facilitate the establishment of this medical school in the County of Kern. The bill would require the authority to governed by a Board of Governors of unspecified size, and require the California State University, Bakersfield, and the Kern Community College District to each appoint an unspecified number of members to the board. The bill would, among other things, grant the authority specified powers and duties of a local unit of government within the state, as provided. The bill would authorize the authority to hire employees, as provided, and would require the authority to establish salary schedules, health benefits, and retirement plans that are no less favorable than those offered to comparable employees within the California State University system. The bill would authorize employees of the authority to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations, as provided, and subject the authority to the jurisdiction of the Public Employment Relations Board. The bill would, among other employment rules, extend due process protections to authority employees. The bill would make employees of the authority eligible to participate in the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) or the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) , as applicable to their classification. The bill would authorize the authority to incur indebtedness and to borrow money and issue notes and revenue bonds in principal amounts that the authority determines to be necessary to provide sufficient funds for achieving any of its purposes, as provided. The bill would establish that an obligation of the authority is not an obligation of the California State University or the Kern Community College District, unless otherwise agreed to by the authority and the California State University or the Kern Community College District. The bill would authorize the authority, upon obtaining accreditation form the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, to develop curricula and grant the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Existing law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, generally requires that all meetings of a legislative body of a local agency be open and public and that all persons be permitted to attend and participate. The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies. The bill would subject the authority to the Ralph M. Brown Act and the California Public Records Act, with specified exemptions related to trade secrets. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Kern.
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the tax imposed by that law. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and before January 1, 2031, would allow a credit against those taxes in an amount equal to 50% of unreimbursed costs paid or incurred by a taxpayer for the purchase of durable medical equipment, as defined, for use by a qualifying dependent, as defined, during the taxable year. The bill would limit the credit to $5,000 per taxable year for each qualifying dependent. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill also would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of disability insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan or disability insurer to allow an individual to enroll in or change their health benefit plan as a result of a specified triggering event. This bill, the PARENT Act, would make pregnancy a triggering event for purposes of enrollment or changing a health benefit plan. Because a willful violation of this provision by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health to implement various programs throughout the state relating to public health. The department administers the California Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard that provides an overview of data from testing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 virus in California. The data in the dashboard is generated by those participating in the department's California Surveillance of Wastewaters (Cal-SuWers) network, including the Cal-SuWers program, WastewaterSCAN, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Wastewater Surveillance System, wastewater utilities, and academic, laboratory, and other state and federal partners. This bill would require the department, in consultation with participating wastewater treatment facilities, local health departments, and other subject matter experts, to maintain the Cal-SuWers network to test, as appropriate for public health use, for pathogens, toxins, or other public health indicators in wastewater. The bill would require participation in the Cal-SuWers network from local health departments and wastewater treatment facilities to be voluntary. The bill would authorize the department to coordinate with health care providers, local health departments, and emergency response agencies to ensure wastewater surveillance data is used for early intervention, outbreak response, epidemiological investigations, and public health planning. The bill would authorize the department to communicate to the general public, through a publicly accessible internet website, as specified, to provide transparency and public awareness of wastewater-based disease monitoring. The bill would authorize the department to utilize external funding sources, in addition to the department's existing, noncontinuously appropriated funding sources, to implement these provisions. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act's requirements a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law also provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services pursuant to a schedule of benefits. Existing law sets forth specified coverage requirements for health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies. Existing law generally authorizes a health care service plan or health insurer to use utilization controls to approve, modify, delay, or deny requests for health care services based on medical necessity. Existing law requires health care service plans and health insurers, as specified, within 6 months after the relevant department issues specified guidance, or no later than March 1, 2025, to require all of their staff who are in direct contact with enrollees or insureds in the delivery of care or enrollee or insured services to complete evidence-based cultural competency training for the purpose of providing trans-inclusive health care for individuals who identify as transgender, gender diverse, or intersex. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after the bill's operative date that provides outpatient prescription drug benefits to cover up to a 12-month supply of a United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -approved prescription hormone therapy, and the necessary supplies for self-administration, that is prescribed by a network provider within their scope of practice and dispensed at one time, as specified. The bill would make the same prescription hormone therapy a covered benefit under the Medi-Cal program, as specified. The bill would prohibit a plan or an insurer from imposing utilization controls or other forms of medical management limiting the supply of this hormone therapy to an amount that is less than a 12-month supply, but would not prohibit a contract, a policy, or the Medi-Cal program from limiting refills that may be obtained in the last quarter of the plan, policy, or coverage year if a 12-month supply of the prescription hormone therapy has already been dispensed during that year. The bill would exclude a Medi-Cal managed care plan contracting with the State Department of Health Care Services from these requirements. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2035. This bill would prohibit a subscriber, enrollee, policyholder, or insured from being excluded from enrollment or participation in, being denied the benefits of, or being subjected to discrimination by, any health care service plan or health insurer licensed in this state, on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. The bill would define discrimination on the basis of sex for those purposes to include, among other things, sex characteristics, including intersex traits, pregnancy, and gender identity. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer from taking specified actions relating to providing access to health programs and activities, including, but not limited to, denying or limiting health care services to an individual based upon the individual's sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or gender otherwise recorded. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer, in specified circumstances, from taking various actions, including, but not limited to, denying, canceling, limiting, or refusing to issue or renew health care service plan enrollment, health insurance coverage, or other health-related coverage, or denying or limiting coverage of a claim, or imposing additional cost sharing or other limitations or restrictions on coverage, on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability, as specified. Because a violation of the bill's requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires a pharmacist to dispense, at a patient's request, up to a 12-month supply of an FDA-approved, self-administered hormonal contraceptive pursuant to a valid prescription that specifies an initial quantity followed by periodic refills. This bill would additionally require a pharmacist to dispense, at a patient's request, up to a 12-month supply of an FDA-approved, prescription hormone therapy pursuant to a valid prescription that specifies an initial quantity followed by periodic refills, unless an exception is met. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would urge the United States Congress and the President of the United States to immediately restore and extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.
Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, and the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as 2 of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law requires, on and after January 1, 2023, each student health center on a California State University or University of California campus to offer abortion by medication techniques, as specified. This bill would require a California State University campus, and would request a University of California campus, to provide adoption information to students in each location on campus where contraception and emergency contraception information is available, including when birth control and levonorgestrel are provided to students through the campus's student health center or pharmacy, as specified.
The California Constitution provides that the University of California constitutes a public trust administered by the Regents of the University of California, a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes. Existing law creates the University of California, San Francisco, San Joaquin Valley Regional Campus Medical Education Endowment Fund. Upon an appropriation by the Legislature, existing law requires moneys in the endowment fund to be allocated to the University of California to support the annual operating costs for the development, operation, and maintenance of a branch campus of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine in the San Joaquin Valley, and to generate funding through investment earnings for support of medical education in the San Joaquin Valley, as provided. This bill would request the University of California to submit a report to the Legislature, on or before August 31, 2026, on the financial requirements necessary to expand the current University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Merced medical education collaboration, the San Joaquin Valley PRIME+ program, and to transition the program into a fully independent medical school operated by the University of California, Merced. The bill would request the report to include the projected costs associated with various program components, a list of potential health facilities at which students could conduct residencies, and a timeline and milestones for the completion of an independent school of medicine at the University of California, Merced.
