SACRAMENTO (March 26, 2025) — “The Office of Health Care Affordability’s (OHCA’s) efforts to impose below-cost spending caps on hospitals —and call out 11 specific hospitals for even deeper cuts— is premature and without solid basis,” said Carmela Coyle, President & CEO of the California Hospital Association. “The decisions made by the OHCA Board will cap how much can be spent on health care for Californians — that means real pain for real people.”
“The proposed caps are well below the rate of inflation,” Coyle said. “Those limits will make it harder, if not impossible, for hospitals to continue providing care — which should concern every Californian.”
“Lawmakers who created OHCA in 2022 envisioned thoughtful, data-driven analysis to understand how to make health care in California more affordable before spending limits were established,” Coyle said. “Instead, the unelected OHCA Board chose to speed up their actions by three years. This rush to limit care for Californians is without any understanding as to whether these spending limits will impede access to care, close hospitals, or create health care deserts.”
“Especially at a time when Congress is considering unprecedented cuts to health care, this state action is a dangerous precedent that will prevent access to vital health services for Californians,” Coyle said.