Legislative Affairs Update
Wesley G. Bradford, MD, MPH
Nov 8 ballot measures: CAFP supports Prop 52, 55, 56 and 63 and urges your support:
- Prop 52 would make permanent a California hospital fee matched by $2 billion/year of federal money to fund hospital-provided uncompensated care, Medi-Cal payments, and children’s health coverage.
- Prop 55 would extend by 12 years an income tax surcharge on annual income over $250,000 ($500,000 for joint filers), to prevent state health program cuts of $2 billion per year.
- Prop 56 would increase the cigarette tax by $2 per pack (with an equivalent increase on other nicotine products, including e-cigarettes) to raise Medi-Cal payments to Medicare levels, fund $40 million/year in residency training, and fund tobacco prevention/ control programs.
- Prop 63 would prohibit large-capacity ammunition magazines, require ammunition sales to be through licensed vendors reporting to the Department of Justice, and require lost or stolen guns and ammunition to be reported to law enforcement.
CAFP did not adopt positions on the other ballot measures and encourages physicians to consider each carefully.
CAFP would like to thank the tremendous work of our Key Contacts and Government Relations team for their success in helping 22 CAFP-supported bills become law this year. These bills will make a positive change in countless patients’ lives. Below are a few of CAFP’s major successes. To see more, please visit our webpage.
- Governor Jerry Brown signed the 2016-17 State Budget, a more than $122 billion spending plan that includes a provision allocating $100 million to support primary care residency programs allocated over three years (roughly $33 million a year).
- AB 1696 (Holden) requires Medi-Cal tobacco cessation services to include all intervention recommendations assigned a grade A or B by the United States Preventive Services Task Force, including at least four tobacco cessation counseling sessions per quit attempt and a tobacco cessation medication regimen.
- AB 2394 (Garcia) requires Medi-Cal to cover transportation for a beneficiary to obtain covered Medi-Cal services.
- SB 999 (Pavley), authorizing a pharmacist to dispense a 12-month supply of United States Food and Drug Administration-approved, self-administered hormonal contraceptives and requiring insurance to cover the cost.
- SBX2-5 (Leno) requires electronic cigarettes to be regulated under the same rules as tobacco products.
- SBX2-7 (Hernandez) raises the age at which Californians can legally purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21
Many CAFP members attended the AAFP Congress of Delegates and FM Experience meeting in Orlando in September. CAFP’s two resolutions, “Endorse Access without Age Restrictions to Over-the-Counter Oral Contraceptives”, and “Medicaid Coverage of Over-the-Counter Emergency Contraception”, were both passed. The Western States Forum at the AAFP Meeting discussed physician wellness and burnout, the opioid crisis, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), and “Health is Primary/Family Medicine for America’s Health”.
Mike Munger of Kansas was elected AAFP’s 2017-18 President. (LA-CAFP member Jack Chou’s candidacy was not successful.)
CAFP’s All Member Advocacy Meeting will be in Sacramento Sat-Sun, March 4-5, 2017, followed by our Family Medicine Lobby Day on Monday March 6.
