Public Policy Achievements | Essential Access Health

California

Some of our past legislative achievements in California include:

2023: Expanded access to medication abortion for MediCal recipients by causing the Department of Health Care Services to reimburse for medication abortion up to 77 rather than 70 days.
2022: Champion a constitutional amendment in the state legislature, which became Proposition 1 on the November 2022 ballot, which enshrined the fundamental constitutional right to abortion and contraception in California.
2022: Established the California Future of Abortion Council with other leading reproductive health organizations, making history by enacting the most comprehensive and bold legislative package expanding abortion access in the U.S., and securing $205 million in the 2022-23 state budget to expand and strengthen access to reproductive health care and abortion services.
2022: Passed a law and budget item to establish the California Reproductive Health Equity Program, which provides grants to providers who provide uncompensated care to patients with low incomes and those who face other financial barriers to accessing abortion and contraception.
2022: Passed a law that requires coverage of over-the-counter birth control options and vasectomy services without cost-sharing, expands contraceptive coverage benefits to state employees and individuals enrolled in university or college health plans, and clearly prohibits employers from discriminating against their employees based on their contraceptive and reproductive health decisions.
2022: Passed a law to make current, more flexible rules for the use and reimbursement of telehealth services permanent under state law and ensure telehealth can continue, increasing access to health care services for all Californians, including the state’s most vulnerable families and Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
2021: Passed a law that expands access to STI testing remotely at home and in the community, increases access to STI treatment for patients and their partners, and updates state law to boost congenital syphilis screening.
2017: Passed a law that requires Medi-Cal managed care and commercial health plans to cover the dispensing of a 12-month supply of prescribed, FDA-approved self-administered contraceptives, such as the ring, patch and oral contraceptives.
2017: Passed a law that codifies the federal freedom of choice in family planning provider provision into California statute to ensure that Medi-Cal enrollees do not lose access to their preferred family planning provider.
2017: Passed a law that prohibits commercial health insurance plans from requiring a referral prior to a patient accessing sexual and reproductive health care services.
2016: Passed a law that requires most health plans to cover FDA-approved contraceptive drugs, devices and products, as well as related counseling and follow-up services and voluntary sterilization procedures. The measure prohibits cost-sharing, restrictions or delays in the provision of covered services.
2013: Passed a law that allows patients covered under another person’s health plan to submit a Confidential Communications Request (CCR) to have information sent directly to the patient instead of the policy holder.
2012: Passed a law that increases timely access to birth control by allowing registered nurses (RNs) to dispense hormonal contraceptives under a standardized procedure.