Last Friday marked the deadline to introduce bills for the 2026 state legislative session. While the focus for this year will be on CHA’s two sponsored bills, there are several concerning pieces of legislation that will demand intensive engagement. (All told, about 1,800 bills have been introduced this year.)
CHA’s two sponsored bills relate to the mounting financial headwinds that hospitals face today.
The first, Assembly Bill (AB) 1923 (Soria, D-Merced), would expedite loan forgiveness for hospitals that previously received loans from the Distressed Hospital Loan Program. It would also expand and strengthen the program to shore up struggling rural and urban hospitalswith a $300 million request in additional funding for the program. For dozens of California hospitals on the brink of financial calamity, these enhanced resources and expanded program eligibility would be a critical lifeline.
The second, AB 2353 (Pacheco, D-Downey) gets out in front of mounting red tape and would provide meaningful analyses of the costs of legislative mandates on hospitals and patients before lawmakers vote on relevant bills. At a time when hospitals are being required by the Office of Health Care Affordability to hold down spending on health care and when record federal cuts to Medi-Cal are materializing, state lawmakers need to have all the information at hand when voting on bills that would create unfunded mandates and affect hospitals’ ability to care for patients.
Other notable activity includes:
- The reintroduction of a single-payer health care bill, AB 1900, which would transition the state’s health care system to a single-payer model known as CalCare. CHA is reviewing this version of the legislation and has previously opposed such efforts as part of a coalition.
- The introduction of several bills that would mitigate the loss of Medi-Cal and health exchange coverage resulting from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. CHA is reviewing these bills and will share positions and response strategies in the coming weeks.
- The introduction of a suite of artificial intelligence-related bills that could govern patient interaction, automated decision-making, pricing algorithms, and more. As with the coverage-related proposals, CHA is reviewing these bills and will determine positions and next steps after that analysis.
In addition to these issues, there will be conversations within the Legislature about insurance company accountability, workforce development, health care worker safety, and more. You can keep tabs on all our state advocacy work through our Bill Tracker, which is updated daily and watch your inbox for legislative “alerts” where your voice will be an essential part of the advocacy process.
