5 new California laws that take effect this week
The big picture: State lawmakers introduced nearly 5,000 bills in 2024, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a little more than 1,000 of them into law, with dozens of those taking effect this week.
Insurance coverage for fertility treatments
Under SB 729, large group health insurance plans must cover the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and fertility treatments, including three egg retrievals for in vitro fertilization.
Consumer protections for subscription cancellations
AB 2863 requires businesses to obtain a consumer's "affirmative consent" before renewing paid subscriptions.
Previously, subscriptions continued until explicitly canceled. Now, businesses must secure permission prior to extending subscriptions after free trials or contract periods have ended.
Mental health for students
All California schools serving grades 7–12 must print the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline on student ID cards under SB 1063.
Schools can also add a QR code linking to local mental health resources.
Pet insurance transparency
California's SB 1217 requires pet insurers to disclose coverage exclusions, including pre-existing conditions, hereditary issues and chronic illnesses.
Insurers must also provide upfront explanations of premium adjustments based on age, claims history or location.
The law also prohibits waiting periods and vet exams on policy renewals and requires insurers to clearly explain how claim reimbursements are calculated.
Drink lids against date-rape drug spiking
To prevent drink tampering and boost safety, California bars and nightclubs with type 48 licenses must begin providing drink lids upon request, per AB 2375.
Venues must also clearly display signs notifying customers about lid and drug-testing kit availability.
Fees for lids are allowed but cannot exceed the cost to provide them.
Minimum wage increases across the Bay Area
Local ordinances mandating wage increases are also taking effect this July.
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Los Angeles Times
11-08-2025
- Los Angeles Times
As California's behavioral health workforce buckles, help is years away
REDDING, Calif. — This spring, the Good News Rescue Mission, which runs the only emergency homeless shelter in Shasta County, received a game-changing, $17.8-million state grant to build a 75-bed residential treatment facility in a region where thousands struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. Now comes the hard part — recruiting and hiring 10 certified substance use counselors and about a dozen other staff members to work at the new site, about 170 miles north of the state capital. 'Ask anyone trying to get staff and it's difficult,' said Justin Wandro, the mission's head of development. 'Try to get people who are willing to work in very intense, very difficult environments. It's hard.' California has long struggled to revitalize its behavioral health system and expand its workforce to meet the needs of its residents, particularly in rural parts of the state like the far north. Six years ago, the California Future Health Workforce Commission warned of a 'severe and growing' shortage across the behavioral health field, including psychiatrists, therapists, social workers and substance use counselors, and noted that two-thirds of Californians with a mental illness go without treatment. Since then, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have set out to transform the behavioral health system, with the Legislature dedicating more than $1 billion to train and recruit providers. Yet, the shortage has only worsened since the pandemic, which exacerbated mental health and addiction issues for many. In April, state health officials revealed that California was short roughly a third of the 8,100 psychiatrists and 117,000 licensed therapists it needed based on 2022 data. And the state's limited training capacity is making it hard to replace the number of retiring practitioners. As a result, existing workers are buckling under the workload while patients without quick access to help during a crisis are turning to costly emergency care. 'It feels helpless, because there is more than you can fix,' said Nick Zepponi, a social worker at the Hill Country Community Clinic CARE Center in Redding. The mental health urgent care clinic is one of the last lines of defense in the fraying behavioral health system in Shasta County, where the suicide rate is more than double the state average and overdose deaths increased more than threefold during the pandemic. 'There's more people than you can help that need it,' Zepponi said. Playing catch-up Under Newsom, the state has increased funding for youth preventive care, revised conservatorship laws, and set up a court-based program to compel treatment for some of the state's most severely mentally ill residents. The Democrat also championed the passage of Proposition 1, a cornerstone of his response to the state's homelessness and drug crises, saying it would add 10,000 treatment beds and housing units and increase access. One of the biggest remaining bottlenecks is the acute shortage of psychiatrists — licensed medical doctors who can prescribe medications such as antidepressants as well as antianxiety and antipsychotic drugs. While the state has opened more slots for training in recent years, it can cost as much as $250,000 a year and requires 12 years of postsecondary education. In 2025, 239 first-year residents enrolled in California psychiatry programs, an all-time high and up from 152 seven years ago. Yet it was far below the 527 first-year psychiatry residents the workforce commission estimated are needed annually from 2025 to 2029. 'The investments have lagged, and because they've been more recent, we're not really seeing as much of the fruit of those investments yet,' said Janet Coffman, a University of California-San Francisco associate professor who specializes in health care workforce issues. 'Some of these psychiatry programs that the state has funded haven't graduated their first class yet.' The state has also expanded the role of other providers, such as nurse practitioners trained to prescribe behavioral health drugs and certified peer counselors who might be able to meet with patients more frequently. Mark Ghaly, former secretary of the state Health and Human Services Agency and one of the architects of Newsom's behavioral health overhaul, said it's better to spread responsibilities among various providers, including some with shorter training timelines, to expand capacity faster. 'You're building workforce plans around models that, frankly, aren't meeting people's needs,' Ghaly said. 'If we try to chase the current models today with the demand that has grown, I don't think you catch up.' In addition to the state's own investments, California is tapping $1.9 billion in Medicaid funds to train, recruit, and retain behavioral health workers, enticing them with scholarships and loan repayments, and helping schools fund new residencies and fellowships. But the program took effect only recently, in January, and there is the looming threat that the Trump administration could rescind the funds at any time. In a statement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Emily Hilliard said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has made clear that approved waivers remain in effect. 'That said, states should not rely on temporary demonstration funding as a substitute for sustained, direct investment in their healthcare workforce,' Hilliard added, saying the agency would continue to evaluate the outcomes of California's experiment, which sunsets at the end of 2029. Health advocates warn that California is so behind that any slowdown in behavioral health workforce funding would be detrimental. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s move to fold the nation's mental health agency into a new department focused on chronic care and disease prevention, national advocates say, could spell trouble for program funding generally. Uber to the ER Kelly Monck, who lives in a pool house behind her mother's middle-class suburban home in Redding, struggles with depression. Despite having health coverage and knowing her way around the healthcare system, she often can't get an appointment with her psychiatrist when thoughts of suicide creep in. 'We've been fighting this demon since I was 15 years old,' said Monck, 38, who is deaf and has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that has collapsed her airway and left her reliant on a ventilator and feeding tube. In April, Monck overdosed on her heart medication. Seeking help, she called her therapist, who eventually persuaded her to go to the emergency room. She took an Uber and waited in the ER for hours, she said, but there was no open treatment bed and she was released. Rather than go to the ER a second time, Monck called Hill Country when suicidal thoughts returned the following week. She had hoped that providers there could expedite an appointment with her county psychiatrist or adjust her medications. But clinic counselors aren't licensed to prescribe medication and could do little more than ensure she wasn't an immediate danger to herself. It wasn't until her mother drove her 250 miles to Stanford Medicine's psychiatry unit that she was able to get her medications adjusted. She didn't see her regular psychiatrist for two more weeks. Monck isn't alone. In some regions of the state, it can take patients months to see a psychiatrist, and those who urgently need help are increasingly turning to costly ER care. In 2022, patients with mental health or substance use disorders accounted for 1 in 3 inpatient hospitalizations and 1 in 6 emergency room visits, state data show. In ERs, doctors can often do little more than temporarily stabilize these patients, since long-term treatment beds are nearly impossible to find. Shasta Regional Medical Center, one of Shasta County's two major hospitals, has created a temporary holding area in the ER for mental health patients, in addition to 18 existing inpatient beds, said Brenten Fillmore, the hospital's director of behavioral health. 'It's not how the system is designed to work,' Fillmore said. 'There just are not enough beds to service the need, particularly when it comes to difficult cases.' Healthcare providers say most patients are better served in office and outpatient settings where regular appointments with clinicians could help them avert a crisis. The state estimates Shasta County has about a third of the psychiatrists and little more than half the licensed therapists it needs, significantly below the state average. More than once, clinicians at Hill Country have made the three-hour journey to take a client to the nearest medication-assisted detox facility, in Eureka, or farther south to San Francisco, said Brandy Gemmill, a substance use counselor. But once patients are sober, it's rare to find an opening in a longer-term residential program. 'What I struggle with is the lack of resources,' Gemmill said. 'Where do we send them? So then, they're back on the street and it's happening all over again.' When patients repeatedly fall through the cracks, Zepponi said, workers like him are at high risk of burnout, something that has hit behavioral health clinicians particularly hard. Every six months or so, when a slight twinge of dread starts to creep in at work, Zepponi knows he needs to schedule a week off if he wants to keep doing the job he loves. 'That's when I know I really need time off, and I have to act quickly.' Turning to GoFundMe In 2018, the Camp fire tore through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Butte County, killing 85, destroying about 14,000 homes, and displacing more than 50,000 people. Within weeks, patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety flooded into local hospitals and doctors' offices, but few providers were equipped to help them. An estimated 40 to 60 physicians left the region after the fire, deepening the shortage. A group of local doctors set out to reverse the trend, and last year the nonprofit Healthy Rural California launched the state's first psychiatric residency program north of Sacramento. Rachel Mitchell, director of the program, said even with a $1.5-million grant from the state for planning, the organization had to cobble together roughly $75,000 via private donations and a GoFundMe campaign to welcome its first class of four psychiatry residents. The federal grant money they rely on for operations, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration, has been a volatile funding source. 'We'd love to get six students per class, but at this point we can't afford to,' Mitchell said. Program administrators want to tap into a more stable funding stream through CMS but must first wait for its partner, Enloe Medical Center in Chico, to recruit psychiatrists to teach and supervise residents. Its first class will graduate in 2028. Mai-Duc writes for KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
Newsweek
07-08-2025
- Newsweek
With Eyes on 2028, Democratic Governors Rip Page From Trump Playbook
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Three of the Democratic Party's highest-profile governors—California's Gavin Newsom, Illinois' JB Pritzker and Minnesota's Tim Walz—are taking a page from President Donald Trump's playbook by rolling back public health care for undocumented immigrants. All three governors have greenlit proposals to freeze, cap or eliminate health benefits for noncitizens without legal status, citing budget shortfalls. The policy reversals, which will impact tens of thousands of people in some of the country's most immigrant-heavy states, come as each leader is widely viewed as a potential contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. In Illinois, a program that provided publicly funded health coverage to over 30,000 undocumented adults ended July 1. Governor JB Pritzker included the cut in his latest state budget, telling it was a "difficult decision" forced by national economic headwinds. "This year, passing a balanced budget required the difficult decision that reflects the reality of Trump and Republicans tanking our national economy and attempting to strip away healthcare," Pritzker's office told Newsweek, referencing prior comments made by the governor. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz have each backed cuts to health care programs for undocumented immigrants, drawing criticism from progressive groups and immigrant advocates. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz have each backed cuts to health care programs for undocumented immigrants, drawing criticism from progressive groups and immigrant advocates. Getty Images Eliminating the program for middle-aged adults is projected to save the general revenue fund about $330 million, according to the governor's office. Minnesota followed shortly after. A bipartisan bill passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Tim Walz removed undocumented adults from MinnesotaCare, the state-run insurance program for low-income residents. "No one got everything they wanted," Walz said after the compromise was finalized in a special session. "There were very difficult conversations... but at the end of the day, we were able to come to this agreement". California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has frequently spoken about health equity, unveiled a plan in May to cap new enrollment for undocumented adults in Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program. While those currently enrolled will not lose coverage, they will face new costs—including a $100 monthly premium starting in 2027—and cuts to dental services. "We are not cutting or rolling back those that are already enrolled in our Medi-Cal system, we're just capping it," Newsom said on July. "No state has done more than the state of California... That's a point of pride". More than 120 organizations signed an open letter condemning Newsom's Medi-Cal cuts, calling them more harmful than the health care changes included in Trump's "big, beautiful" tax and spending bill. 'Not Just Tone' Newsom, Pritzker, and Walz are widely seen as potential candidates for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. A Morning Consult poll from April showed Newsom with 11 percent support among Democratic primary voters, tied with Pete Buttigieg and behind only Kamala Harris. An Echelon Insights poll also showed Newsom at 6 percent, Pritzker at 2 percent, and Walz around 3 percent. All three have increased their national visibility, with Newsom and Pritzker making appearances in early primary states. But critics say the three Democrats are courting political optics at the expense of vulnerable residents. President Donald Trump arrives to speak at Fort Bragg, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Fort Bragg, N.C. President Donald Trump arrives to speak at Fort Bragg, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Fort Bragg, N.C. Associated Press "These governors may be known for their sharp anti-Trump rhetoric, but their recent policy choices echo the very worst aspects of his administration: using immigrants—particularly those without the right to vote—as economic scapegoats," wrote Jim Mangia, president of St. John's Community Health, in a column for The Hill. Public health experts have long argued that covering undocumented residents reduces costs by avoiding more expensive emergency room visits and stabilizing community health care systems. Mangia cited a University of Chicago study showing state-run immigrant coverage had created cost savings for Illinois hospitals. Immigrant rights organizations have condemned the changes. "Terminating state coverage for immigrants will compromise our collective health, as well as the health care infrastructure that serves all of us," Tanya Broder, senior counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, told NBC News. Progressive groups have warned the cuts risk alienating the Democratic base. "This assumption that by moving more to the middle or to the right that you're going to recruit some people back—I think it's a miscalculation," Jennifer Driver of State Innovation Exchange told NBC. "The frustration that you're seeing in the Democratic base is due to this kind of waffling". Meanwhile, Republicans have seized on the reversals. In Colorado, GOP members of Congress have called on Democratic Governor Jared Polis to roll back health care programs for undocumented residents, citing the actions in California, Minnesota and Illinois. "Every dollar that Colorado hands out for free health care for illegal immigrants is money that can't be spent on seniors and rural hospitals," a spokesperson for Republican Rep. Gabe Evans told Newsweek. For now, Newsom, Pritzker and Walz say they are juggling competing priorities while trying to balance their budgets. But immigrant advocates warn the damage could be lasting—both for vulnerable residents and for Democrats trying to distinguish themselves from Trump on policy, not just tone. "These cuts are not just cruel—they are economically shortsighted," Mangia wrote. "We need leaders who will fight to expand care—not slash it".
Yahoo
07-08-2025
- Yahoo
Millions of Californians may lose health coverage because of new Medicaid work requirements
The nation's first mandated work requirement for Medicaid recepients, approved by the Republican-led Congress and signed by President Trump, is expected to have a seismic effect in California. One estimate from state health officials suggests that as many as 3.4 million people could lose their insurance through what Gov. Gavin Newsom calls the "labyrinth of manual verification," which involves Medi-Cal recipients proving every six months that they are working, going to school or volunteering at least 80 hours per month. "It's going to be much harder to stay insured," said Martha Santana-Chin, the head of L.A. Care Health Plan, a publicly operated health plan that serves about 2.3 million Medi-Cal patients in Los Angeles County. She said that as many as 1 million people, or about 20% to 40% of its members, could lose their coverage. The work requirement will be the first imposed nationwide in the six-decade history of Medicaid, the program that provides free and subsidized health insurance to disabled and low-income Americans. It's relatively uncharted territory, and it's not yet clear how the rules will shake out for the 5.1 million people in California who will be required to prove that they are working in order to qualify for Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid. After the 2026 midterm elections, millions of healthy adults will be required to prove every six months that they meet the work requirement in order to qualify for Medicaid. The new mandate spells out some exceptions, including for people who are pregnant, in addiction treatment or caring for children under age 14. Democrats have long argued that work requirements generally lead to eligible people l osing their health insurance due to bureaucratic hurdles. Republicans say that a work requirement will encourage healthy people to get jobs and preserve Medicaid for those who truly need it. "If you clean that up and shore it up, you save a lot of money," said House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. "And you return the dignity of work to young men who need to be out working instead of playing video games all day." Only three U.S. states have tried to implement work requirements for Medicaid recipients: New Hampshire, Arkansas and Georgia. One study found that in the first three months of the Arkansas program, more than 18,000 people lost health coverage. People can lose coverage a variety of ways, said Joan Alker, a Georgetown University professor who studies Medicaid. Some people hear that the rules have changed and assume they are no longer eligible. Others struggle to prove their eligibility because their income fluctuates, they are paid in cash or their jobs don't keep good payroll records. Some have problems with the technology or forms, she said, and others don't appeal their rejections. Of the 15 million people on Medi-Cal in California, about one-third will be required to prove they are working, the state said. Those people earn very little: less than $21,000 for a single person and less than $43,000 for a household of four. The state's estimate of 3.4 million people losing coverage is a projection based on what happened in Arkansas and New Hampshire. But those programs were brief, overturned by the courts and weren't "a coordinated effort among the states to figure out what the best practices are," said Ryan Long, the director of congressional relations at the Paragon Health Institute, a conservative think tank that has become influential among congressional Republicans. Long said advancements in technology and a national emphasis on work requirements should make work verification less of a barrier. The budget bill includes $200 million in grants for states to update their systems to prepare, he said. Arguments from liberal groups that people will lose healthcare are a "straw man argument," Long said: "They know that the public supports work requirements for these benefits, so they can't come out and say, 'We don't support them.'" A poll by the health research group KFF found this year that 62% of American adults support tying Medicaid eligibility to work requirements. The poll also found that support for the policy drops to less than 1 in 3 people when respondents hear "that most people on Medicaid are already working and many would risk losing coverage because of the burden of proving eligibility through paperwork." In June, Newsom warned that some Californians could be forced to fill out 36 pages of paperwork to keep their insurance, showing reporters an image of a stack of forms with teal and gold accents that he described as "an actual PDF example of the paperwork that people will have to submit to for their eligibility checks." Many Californians already are required to fill out that 36-page form or its online equivalent to enroll in Medi-Cal and Covered California, the state's health insurance marketplace. Experts say it's too soon to say what system will be used for people to prove their work eligibility, because federal guidance won't be finalized for months. Newsom's office directed questions to the Department of Health Care Services, which runs Medi-Cal. A spokesperson there said officials are "still reviewing the full operational impacts" of the work requirements. "The idea that you are going to get a paper submission every six months, I'm not sure people have to do that," Long said. Georgia is the only state that has implemented a lasting work requirement for Medicaid. Two years ago, the state made healthcare available to people who were working at least 80 hours per month and earned less than the federal poverty limit (about $15,000 for one person or $31,200 for a household of four). More than 100,000 people have applied for coverage since the program's launch in July of 2023. As of June of this year, more than 8,000 people were enrolled, according to the state's most recent data. The Medicaid program has cost more than $100 million so far, and of that, $26 million was spent on health benefits and more than $20 million was allocated to marketing contracts, KFF Health News reported. Democrats in Georgia have sought an investigation into the program. The Inland Empire agency that provides Medi-Cal coverage for about 1.5 million people in San Bernardino and Riverside counties estimated that 150,000 members could lose their insurance as a result of work requirements. Jarrod McNaughton, the chief executive of the Inland Empire Health Plan, said that California's 58 counties, which administer Medi-Cal, "will be the ones at the precipice of piecing this together" but haven't yet received guidance on how the eligibility process will be set up or what information people will have to provide. Will it be done online? Will recipients be required to fill out a piece of paper that needs to be mailed in or dropped off? "We don't really know the process yet, because all of this is so new," Naughton said. In the meantime, he said, the health plan's foundation is working to make this "as least burdensome as possible," working to improve community outreach and connect people who receive Medi-Cal insurance to volunteer opportunities. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
