Policy
Carga Publica (Public Charge)
Legislative Day
Promotores and Community Health Workers (CHWs) make an annual pilgrimage to Sacramento bringing the voices, concerns and hopes of their communities to the attention of our state legislators. Carrying our core issues of access to health care, parental engagement in education, and immigrant rights, promotores support policies that positively impact these issues ensuring that they represent the desires of their community.
Promotores and CHWs are the heart of their communities, neighborhoods and homes. Across California, promotores and CHWs work to provide information and support for health, education, immigration and other issues to individuals and families helping them to navigate systems and processes, while contributing to making them better! Whether assisting communities in understanding and enrolling into Covered California, offering Teen Pregnancy Prevention workshops, or teaching promotores and CHWs how to form Bailoterapia (Dance Therapy) classes to address obesity, promotores make a difference.
2019 Legislative Priorities
On May 7, 2019, promotoras/es in California urged legislators to:
IMMIGRATION
SUPPORT AB 512 (TING) (CO-AUTHORS: ASSEMBLY MEMBERS E. GARCIA, REYES, SENATOR PORTANTINO)
CULTURAL COMPETENCE IN MENTAL HEALTH
The AB 512 would require each mental health plan to prepare a cultural competency assessment plan to address specified matters, including disparities in access, utilization, and outcomes by race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, gender identity, and immigration status. The bill would require a mental health plan to convene a committee for the purpose of reviewing and approving the cultural competency assessment plan, to annually update its cultural competency plan and progress, to post this material on its internet website, and to submit its cultural competency assessment plan to the department every 3 years for technical assistance and implementation feedback.
EDUCATION
SUPPORT SB 207 (HURTADO)
BREATHING EASIER: IMPROVED ASTHMA OUTCOMES FOR MEDI-CAL
This bill would include asthma preventive services as a covered benefit under the Medi-Cal program and it would require the department, in consultation with external stakeholders, to develop a coverage policy consistent with specified federal and clinically appropriate guidelines. The goals are to: 1) Allow Medi-Cal to reimburse for asthma education and home trigger assessments provided by qualified, non-licensed professionals including community health workers and promotoras, and 2) increase financial support for environmental trigger remediation in the home.
HEALTH
SUPPORT AB 4 (ARAMBULA, BONTA, AND CHIU) AND SB 29 (LARA AND DURAZO)
MEDI-CAL ELIGIBILITY
SB 29/AB 4 would provide full-scope Medi-Cal to income-eligible adults of all ages, by removing immigration status as an eligibility exclusion. It requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state.
SUPPORT AB 316 (RAMOS AND RIVAS) (COAUTHORS: ASSEMBLY MEMBER FRAZIER)
MEDI-CAL: BENEFITS: BENEFICIARIES WITH SPECIAL DENTAL CARE NEEDS
The AB 316 would require the department to implement a special needs treatment and management benefit that would be provided for 4 visits in a 12-month period for a Medi-Cal dental program beneficiary with special dental care needs, as defined. The bill would require a Medi- Cal dental program provider to document specified information, including the need for additional time to treat a Medi-Cal dental program beneficiary with special dental care needs, for purposes of reimbursement and it would require the department, commencing January 1, 2020, to provide the Legislature with semiannual status reports to the Legislature until regulations have been adopted.
Additional 2019 Legislation
HEALTH
SB 347 (MONNING) – POSITION: SUPPORT
SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGES: SAFETY WARNINGS
Would establish the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Act, which would prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale a sugar-sweetened beverage in a sealed beverage container, a multipack of sugar-sweetened beverages, or a concentrate, as those terms are defined, in this state unless the sealed beverage container, multipack, or packaging of the concentrate bears a safety warning, as prescribed.
AB 764 (BONTA) – POSITION: SUPPORT
SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGES: NONSALE DSITRIBUTION INCENTIVES
Would regulate promotion and marketing activities related to sugar-sweetened beverages by prohibiting a beverage company, as defined, manufacturer, or distributor, as defined, from giving or offering incentives or other financial support to compensate distributors or retailers for the cost of promotional offers, coupons, or other incentives offered to consumers for branded products of the beverage company. The bill would authorize local governments and the Attorney General to impose civil penalties for a violation of that prohibition, as specified.
AB 318 (CHU) – POSITION: SUPPORT
MEDI-CAL MATERIALS READABILITY
This bill requires the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and Medi-Cal managed care plans, including county behavioral health plans, to improve readability of English-language and translated informational materials sent to Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Specifically, this bill: 1) Requires DHCS and contracting managed care plans to field test specified translated informational materials distributed to beneficiaries, which includes reviewing for accuracy, cultural appropriateness and readability. 2) Requires DHCS to establish a readability workgroup to identify at least 10 documents released to Medi-Cal beneficiaries and to implement a process through which the documents are reviewed and revised by a readability expert and presented to the workgroup and department, as specified.
AB 138 (BLOOM) – POSITION: SUPPORT
CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY HEALTH FUND
Would, subject to specified exemptions, impose a fee on every distributor, as defined, for the privilege of distributing bottled sugary drinks and concentrate in the state, at a rate of $0.02 per fluid ounce and for the privilege of distributing syrups and powders concentrate in this state, either as concentrate or as sweetened beverages derived from that concentrate, at the rate of $0.02 per fluid ounce of sweetened beverage to be produced from concentrate.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
SB 230 (CABALLERO) – POSITION: OPPOSE
LAW ENFORCEMENT: USE DEADLY FORCE: TRAINING: POLICIES
SB 230 does not meaningfully address California’s epidemic of police shootings. It allows more unnecessary killings by allowing officers to kill people even when there are alternatives, regardless of whether they pose a threat to another person. It sets no requirements on use of force policies, other than requiring that departments have a use of force policy, which every agency already has, and it provides vague guidance on training with no minimum standards.
COMMUNICATIONS
AB 1366 (GONZALEZ) – POSITION: OPPOSE
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS AND CONVEYANCE
AB 1366 eliminates state consumer protection for most phone services that the majority of California residents depend upon to communicate with family, work, and emergency responders. It endangers public safety during wildfires and other disasters since it is not required to address the need for reliable communication networks during wildfires or loss of electrical service, nor to respond to CPUC requests for safety and reliability records.
TRAUMA
AB 392 (WEBER) – POSITION: SUPPORT
PEACE OFFICERS: DEADLY FORCE
Would redefine the circumstances under which a homicide by a peace officer is deemed justifiable to include when the killing is in self-defense or the defense of another, consistent with the existing legal standard for self-defense, or when the killing is necessary to prevent the escape of a fleeing felon whose immediate apprehension is necessary to prevent death or serious injury. The bill would additionally bar the use of this defense if the peace officer acted in a criminally negligent manner that caused the death, including if the officer’s criminally negligent actions created the necessity for the use of deadly force.
AB 898 (WICKS) – POSITION: SUPPORT
EARLY AND PERIODIC SCREENING DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT SERVICES: BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
Would require, by March 30, 2020, and monthly thereafter, the California Health and Human Services Agency, under the oversight of the Governor, to convene the Children’s Behavioral Health Action Team, which would consist of no fewer than 30 individuals, including the Director of Health Care Services, Director of Social Services, the Director of Managed Health Care, and representatives from community-based behavioral health agencies, to maximize the well-being of children in California who receive EPSDT services and health care through the Medi-Cal program.
SB 331 (HURTADO) – POSITION: SUPPORT
SUICIDE-PREVENTION: STRATEGIC PLANS
This bill would require counties to create and implement, and update as necessary, a suicide-prevention strategic plan that places particular emphasis on preventing suicide in children who are less than 19 years of age and includes specified components, including long-term suicide prevention goals and the selection or development of interventions to be used to prevent suicide. The bill would require counties, as part of the planning process to, among other things, provide recommendations to individuals and organizations working with youth on early intervention, implementation of crisis management systems, and addressing suicide risk for vulnerable populations. The bill would authorize the use of Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funds to implement the bill.
WATER
AB 217 (GARCIA, E.) – POSITION: SUPPORT
SAFE DRINKING WATER FOR ALL ACT
Would enact the Safe Drinking Water for All Act and would establish the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund in the State Treasury and would provide that moneys in the fund are continuously appropriated to the board to provide a source of funding to secure access to safe drinking water for all Californians, while also ensuring the long-term sustainability of drinking water service and infrastructure.
PARK/ENVIRONMENT
AB 839 (MULLIN) – POSITION: SUPPORT
CLIMATE ADAPTATION STRATEGY: STRATEGIC RESILIENCY FRAMEWORK: ADAPTATION THROUGH RESILIENCY, ECONOMIC VITALITYM AND EQUITY ACCOUNT
Existing law requires the Natural Resources Agency to update every 3 years the state’s climate adaptation strategy, known as the Safeguarding California Plan, to identify vulnerabilities to climate change by sectors and priority actions needed to reduce the risks in those sectors. This bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, on or before July 1, 2021, to review the plan and develop a strategic resiliency framework, as specified.