[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Health legislation heard in final policy committees before July break

By Hanh Kim Quach
Health Care Policy Coordinator
Health Access California

With tomorrow's deadline for legislation to have cleared policy committees in the second house, lawmakers heard a battery of bills this past week. Key pieces of legislation of interest to health advocates were also on the agenda. Many of the bills advocates have been tracking passed.

Following is a list of the bills heard this week and the outcome. Additionally, you may visit the Health Access website, for a complete list of bills.

The following bills passed in Assembly Health Committee, chaired by Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, on Tuesday:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

•SB1522 to ban junk insurance passes Assembly Health Committee
•AB1945 would impose new rules on insurers who cancel insurance policies
•AB2967 to collect cost and quality data from medical providers passes

By Hanh Kim Quach
Health Care Policy Coordinator
Health Access California

Key bills of interest to health advocates were heard in the last two days, in, respectively, the Assembly Health Committee, chaired by Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally, and Senate Health Committee, chaired by Senator Sheila Kuehl.

Hundreds of bills that passed the house where they were introduced must now clear the second house; and the first step of that is to pass policy committees by June 27. A number of bills that would benefit health care consumers were in Assembly and Senate Health committees this week, including a number of key bills that would lay the foundation for comprehensive health reform in the next couple of years. An updated list of bills is available on the Health Access website.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Zack Kaldveer
Consumer Federation of California

That's right, the final score of this battle over keeping prescription drug records private reads California consumers 1 - drug stores, pharmaceutical companies, and drug marketers 0.

I have posted a lot about SB 1096 in recent weeks, and I'm happy to say that the roller coaster ride is over! My first post on the topic was regarding its initial, and short lived defeat in the Senate. But alas, the bill was not dead...and came back to win Senate approval by a single vote.

It was at that time that the media started to cover the issue, with thanks to such reporters as the San Francisco Chronicle's Elizabeth Fernandez and the Los Angeles Times David Lazarus. The media's scrutiny of the bill's claims, along with the effective and outspoken opposition of groups such as ours (CFC) and Consumer Watchdog, combined with the outpouring of public sentiment AGAINST the legislation that arose in the last week created a kind of legislative "perfect storm". And Thankfully, our lawmakers were listening, as evidenced by its near unanimous defeat in the Assembly Health Committee.

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The Assembly Health Committee has unanimously declined to forward SB 1096 to the floor of the Assembly. I've written quite a bit about this privacy invasion, and it's heartening to see this one disappear for a while.

As a reminder, SB 1096 would allow pharmacies to sell prescription data so that patients could receive "reminder letters" from third parties. As the law currently stands, pharmacies and doctors could do so themselves, but could not sell the data to others. Other states allow this privacy invasion, but fortunately California will remain the lone holdout against PhARMA's plans to commoditize our health records. Despite the $20,000+ that health care interests invested in Sen Calderon, they were unable to succeed in passing this poorly conceived legislation.

Thank you to Asm. Health Cmte Chair Dymally and the entirety of the Committee for rejecting this.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

* Insurers would face restrictions in cancelling coverage retroactively
* Patients would be better able to assess hospital cost and quality data
* Other bills on hospital community benefits and "boutique hospitals"

By Hanh Kim Quach
Health Care Policy Coordinator
Health Access California

The Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday approved a smattering of bills that would begin to set the foundation for health care reform, providing security to health consumers – both for their coverage and choice of provider.

Two of the bills deal with the insurer practice of retroactively canceling policies after patients become sick and need expensive treatments. These rescissions leave patients tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands in debt. Another bill would require medical providers to disclose cost and quality information in order to give purchasers more power in selecting the highest quality and most efficient care.

RESCISSIONS

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

AB 2821 Dies in Assembly Health Committee as Many Democrats Lay Off Voting

By Hanh Kim Quach
Health Care Policy Coordinator
Health Access California

[Editor’s note: Update: Reconsideration of this bill was granted, meaning another vote in committee can be held and this decision reversed. In advance of the hearing on this bill, we reported on this bill in “Heavily Lobbied Bill to Protect Patients from Drug Company Direct-to-Doctor Marketing Up Today in California Assembly Health Committee”. Five Democrats, Dymally, Berg, Hancock, Jones, and Salas voted in favor. All Republicans voted against. Seven Democrats on the committee were either absent or failed to vote: De La Torre, De Leon, Bass, Hayashi, Hernandez, Lieber, and Ma. The bill needed 9 votes get pass from the committee.]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

AB 2821 (Feuer) opposed by pharmaceutical industry

By Michael Russo
Health Care Advocate and Staff Attorney
California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG)

Anybody who’s watched any TV in the past few years knows that flashy ads praising the benefits of exciting new drugs are ubiquitous. Beyond breezing past the list of potential side effects with quick, monotone narration, these ads too often mislead consumers into asking for medicines that aren’t right for them, either because they’re not effective or because they’re too expensive.