Right now, California lawmakers are debating bills that will directly affect how patients access medications, navigate insurance coverage, and manage out-of-pocket costs. Some proposals would improve transparency, reduce administrative barriers, and make care more affordable. Others may carry unintended consequences that could limit access or increase financial strain.
These decisions matter, and your legislators want to hear from you on these key bills.
If you’re a California resident, click here to send a letter to your legislators—and do it now.
It only takes a couple of minutes, and your message will be sent only to your elected officials—the people who value your voice the most. By speaking up now, you help ensure that policies in your state prioritize affordability, access, and patient-centered decision-making.
Here’s a deep-dive on these important issues:
AB 1970 – Support.
This bill would eliminate step therapy (or “fail first”) for patients who are pursuing treatment for mental health and substance abuse disorders.
We’ve all heard the stories too many times. Family members fight for weeks and months to get a loved one into mental health treatment. More than half of all patients have to wait 1-4 MONTHS to get their prescriptions. If they’re forced to “fail first” on a sub-optimal medication, about 40 percent of them give up treatment entirely, which just drives up the likelihood that they’ll end up in the emergency room—the most expensive and least effective site of care.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We know more about how to treat serious mental illness and substance use disorders than ever before. Different medications affect patients in different ways, depending on age, overall health, conflicting health conditions and other medications. Physicians are in a better position to predict medication efficacy for individual patients, and their judgments—not the insurers—should dictate the patients’ treatment.
Step therapy puts too much at risk for patients who are already trying their best to manage mental health and substance abuse disorders.
AB 1887 – Support.
This bill protects rare disease patients from unnecessary prior authorization and step therapy requirements.
For rare disease patients, these insurance barriers are particularly devastating. Prior authorization delays and forced trials with inappropriate medications can lead to irreversible disease progression and preventable suffering. When FDA-approved therapies exist specifically for a rare condition, patients should not wait weeks for insurance approval or fail on ineffective treatments first. They should also not be limited to prescriptions from specialists with expertise in the condition; this ignores the reality of medical care teams and physician consultations, while creating more barriers for patients.
AB 1887 ensures rare disease patients receive specialized care without insurance obstacles that have no clinical justification. By providing immediate access to appropriate therapies, this bill improves health outcomes while reducing long-term costs from preventable complications.
AB 1798 – Support.
This bill protects against discrimination for patients who get genetic testing from life, disability and long-term care insurance.
AB 1798 addresses a critical gap in current law. While federal protections prohibit discrimination in health insurance and employment, individuals remain vulnerable to discrimination in life, disability, and long-term care insurance. This gap creates real and harmful consequences for people who are managing serious conditions.
Fear of genetic discrimination is already impacting patient choices, and those choices will affect not only their health outcomes, but all of us. Despite the fact doctors are recommending patients get genetic testing to better understand and treat their conditions, they are declining to get tested. Patients are rightfully concerned about how genetic information could be used against them in the future, and so they are opting out of research studies as well. This undermines early detection and limits their access to emerging therapies.
For the community we serve, AB 1798 is about removing barriers to care, protecting patient privacy, and continuing progress toward better treatments and cures. No individual should have to choose between learning information that could improve or save their life and protecting their financial future.
SB 1199 – Support.
This legislation would protect California patients from the harmful practice of copay accumulator programs, which undermines patient health and financial security while allowing insurance companies to profit at patients’ expense.
At a time when insurance costs continue to rise, patients rely on third-party copay assistance programs (such as charitable support or manufacturer coupons) to afford essential medications. But even though third-party assistance is the same as a patient payment, insurance companies are not applying it toward the patient’s deductible or out-of-pocket maximum.
Third-party assistance should still help the patient, not double the benefit to the insurance company. It’s the same as if a college student received a Rotary scholarship, the university took the scholarship money, but still expected the student to pay the full tuition cost.
For people with chronic illnesses, this practice is a significant financial hit, year after year.
AB 1460 – Oppose.
This bill allows for-profit corporations, PBMs and large hospital systems to buy medication at large discounts, while still charging patients full price.
The 340B Program is a federal program that helps certain hospitals and clinics who serve rural and low-income patients to buy prescription drugs at discounted prices. This allows them to better care for low-income patients and, when implemented the way Congress intended, is effective at meeting the patients’ needs.
The problem is that in too many states, lawmakers are allowing ALL hospitals and pharmacies to get the discounts meant to help the smallest and poorest communities. This means that hospitals, healthcare systems or contract pharmacies (including for-profit chains like CVS and Walgreens) are using the program to buy the drugs at low prices, while they continue to charge patients the higher price. As a result, a program intended to make medication more affordable for vulnerable patients is not.
Your perspective on how chronic disease affects your daily life, your family, or your finances is crucial in helping policymakers understand why these bills matter.
AB 1776 - Oppose.
Healthcare thrives on collaboration, but this bill fails to support the cooperation that benefits patients.
California Life Sciences explained that “clinical trials depend on tight coordination and controlled participation to ensure safety and FDA approval.” AB 1776 could discourage the exclusive partnerships between companies and hospitals needed for these trials. Additionally, voluntary patient assistance programs could be seen as “setting a price” without better protections in the proposed law. Fixed-price agreements are essential for supporting care in underserved areas.
The bill also lacks provisions for emergencies. For instance, during COVID, medical companies worked together on manufacturing and supply chain issues, but that could be labeled “anticompetitive,” even though that kind of coordination should be encouraged.
This bill makes it harder to cooperate on clinical trials, discount programs and emergency response. We need a better bill that protects patient-centered collaboration.