About Affordability
Health care is a basic human need, one that Californians rely on to live, grow, and prosper. Unfortunately, the cost of care has become too high for many working families. For years, California’s hospitals have made headway toward controlling costs. To ensure care for every Californian, the entire health care field must tighten its belt — insurance companies, physicians, labor unions, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and more.
Improving affordability is a priority for California hospitals — but with nearly two-thirds of health care spending occurring outside of hospitals, solving this challenge will take a combined effort from the entire health care system. To move toward our shared goals of affordable, equitable, and high-quality health care, hospitals work closely with the Office of Health Care Affordability.
Make Your Voices Heard on OHCA, Artificial Intelligence
Through the end of this month, hospitals have a brief window to elevate their voices on two critical issues that could be decided in a matter of weeks.
CHA Urges OHCA to Protect All Health Care Workers
What’s happening: This week, CHA commented on the Office of Health Care Affordability’s (OHCA’s) draft regulations implementing the nonsupervisory organized labor cost adjustment to the spending targets. In the letter, CHA stresses that the proposal “falls short of the Legislature’s overarching goals and directives, fails the office’s policy imperative to treat all workers equitably, and creates a policy that is largely unworkable...
Hospital Field Urges OHCA Board to Reject Ruinous Penalties
What's happening: Organizations representing nearly 150 hospitals wrote or commented at this week’s Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) board meeting asking the board to reject OHCA’s proposed penalties, which could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars for even a single-year violation of the spending targets. Hospitals shared the disastrous consequences such exorbitant...
Hospitals Must Weigh in on Penalties, Updated Market Oversight Rules at June 24 OHCA Board Meeting
What's happening: The Office of Health Care Affordability’s (OHCA) board meets next week to discuss the proposed spending target penalties, draft changes to the cost and market impact review (CMIR) regulations, and health care spending trends from 2023-2024. Hospitals’ help is needed to push back against the exorbitant penalties proposed by OHCA; see CHA’s alert for guidance...
California is Killing Its Golden Goose
The Wall Street Journal’s recent piece examining job growth nationally and in California (“Forget Tech and Hollywood. California Is Powered by Healthcare Jobs.” – May 11, 2026) noted that, “without [the health and human services sector], the state hosting the nation’s high-tech and entertainment hubs would have lost jobs … This gap between health-related and other parts of the economy proved greater in California than in any other U.S. state.”
CHA Alert: Tell OHCA Board ‘No’ On Exorbitant Penalties That Endanger Health Care
What’s happening: On Wednesday, CHA issued an alert asking members to press the Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) to set a reasonable enforcement structure that gives hospitals a chance to improve before imposing penalties so severe that hospitals would have no choice but to cut services, reduce staff, or close outright.
CHA Urges OHCA Board to Reject Draconian Penalties
What's happening: The Office of Health Care Affordability’s (OHCA) board met on Wednesday and continued deliberations over the monetary penalties for violating the spending targets. The office also introduced draft regulations to implement Assembly Bill (AB) 1415 (Statutes of 2025), which expands OHCA’s authority to review certain types of health care market transactions.
Recording of OHCA ‘High-Cost’ Hospital List Reassessment Now Available
What’s happening: A recording of CHA's April 23 webinar on the Office of Health Care Affordability’s (OHCA) planned reassessment of the “high-cost” hospital list is now available for members who many have missed it.
CHA Pushes Back Against OHCA Board’s Desire to Fine Its Way to Affordability
What’s happening: Yesterday, the Office of Health Care Affordability board convened to discuss financial penalties for exceeding the spending targets, a baseline analysis of hospital spending growth between 2022 and 2023, and updates for the cost and market impact review program.
CHA’s Two Sponsored Bills Make It Out of Assembly Health Committee
What’s happening: Despite the concerns of Chair Mia Bonta, both CHA-sponsored bills —Assembly Bill (AB) 1923 (Soria, D-Merced) and AB 2353 (Pacheco, D-Downey) — moved out of the Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday. AB 1923 would expand the Distressed Hospital Loan Program (DHLP) and AB 2353 would allow for additional cost analysis of proposed legislation and regulations...