By Kristy Wiese
Legislative Advocate
COVID-19 response, including vaccine planning and distribution, remains the priority among policymakers in California.
On February 12, the Newsom Administration announced that the state is issuing new guidance that, effective March 15, will allow people aged 16-65 to receive the COVID-19 vaccine who are at high risk of dying from COVID-19 due to health risk or disability (e.g. cancer, Stage 4 or higher chronic kidney disease, Down syndrome, organ transplant, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, heart conditions, severe obesity, and specified Type 2 diabetes). Approximately 4-6 million people will fall into this category.
The Blue Shield contract to administer the statewide vaccination program was finalized and made public on February 15. The contract delineates goals to increase distribution and specifies that vaccine doses will be sent directly to providers, who will sign model contracts to participate. Blue Shield will also implement a vaccine provider credentialing and enrollment system. Data reporting is a key component of the contract, requiring doses to be reported in a timely manner and uploaded to the state vaccine progress dashboard. The contract specifies most Californians should have to travel 30 minutes or less to receive a vaccine and sets an administration goal of 3 million/week by March 1 and 4 million/week by April 30.
At the legislative level, the deadline to introduce new bills was February 22. Although there were rumors that legislators would be limited in the number of bills they could carry due to COVID-19 and a compressed committee hearing schedule, the 2,369 bills introduced this year is comparable to the number of bills introduced in a normal, non-COVID year. This is remarkable because there are significant limitations to the legislative process this year. Like last year, the Capitol remains closed to the public, so advocacy is being achieved remotely via zoom, conference calls and text messages. Most testimony at committee hearings will also occur remotely and, because of social distancing requirements, committee hearings must be spread out. Bills will move quickly this session, so it is more important than ever that CANP remains close to and engaged in the legislative process.
One of the most high-profile news bills this year is AB 1400 by Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), which would create the California Guaranteed Health Care for All program, or CalCare, to provide comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage and a health care cost control system in California. The California Nurses Association is spearheading the effort. It’s too soon to know if AB 1400 will make it to the finish line, but it will certainly move through the committee process, at least in the first house.
The highest priority bill for CANP this session will be AB 852 by Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Napa). Assm. Wood authored AB 890 last year, which was signed by Governor Newsom in September and allows nurse practitioners to practice independently. AB 892 will contain language to “clean-up” certain provisions of AB 890 that were unable to be negotiated last session due to time limitations. CANP remains focused on successful implementation of AB 890 at the Board of Registered Nursing and with the Legislature.