(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) It is in the public interest that all Californians receive health care that is accessible, affordable, equitable, high-quality, and universal.

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(2) While California has reduced the uninsured share of its population to a historic low of 7 percent through implementation of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA: Public Law 111-148) and other state efforts, affordability has reached a crisis point as health care costs continue to grow.

(3) As costs rise, employers are increasingly shifting the cost of premiums and deductibles to employees, negatively impacting the potential for wage growth. Between 2010 and 2018, wages in the state kept pace with inflation by increasing by 19 percent. Meanwhile, families with job-based coverage experienced a 45 percent increase in premiums, or more than twice the rate of wage growth. During the same period, families experienced a 70 percent increase in PPO deductibles, or nearly four times the rate of wage growth. While health insurance premium increases for 2021 may be considered moderate due to lower utilization of preventive, routine, and nonemergency services as a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, this abatement in health care cost growth is expected to be temporary.

(4) Escalating health care costs are being driven primarily by high prices and the underlying factors or market conditions that drive prices, particularly in geographic areas and sectors where there is a lack of competition due to consolidation, market power, venture capital activity, the role of profit margins, and other market failures. Consolidation through acquisitions, mergers, or corporate affiliations is pervasive across the industry and involves health care service plans, health insurers, hospitals, physician organizations, pharmacy benefit managers, and other health care entities. Further, market consolidation occurs in various forms, including horizontal, vertical, and cross industry mergers, transitions from nonprofit to for-profit status or vice versa, and any combination involving for-profit and nonprofit entities, such as a nonprofit entity merging with, acquiring, or entering into a corporate affiliation with a for-profit entity or vice versa.

(5) Californians of color experience health disparities, including barriers to accessing care, receiving lower quality of care, lack of access to culturally and linguistically competent care, and experiencing worse health outcomes. Certain communities, including low-income, Black, Latino, Pacific Islander, and essential workers, have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 in terms of higher rates of infection, hospitalizations, and deaths. These negative health outcomes further highlight a public health imperative to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care.

(6) The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities within the current system with regard to provider payments. Physician fee-for-service payment has increased over the past decade, while the use of population-based prepayment has decreased in the employer-sponsored coverage market. As Californians stayed home, the loss of fee-for-service (FFS) payment revenue for providers has downstream impacts on access to care and for health care workers’ economic security. Beyond exposing providers to considerable financial instability, FFS payments may not be the most effective way to incentivize providers to deliver high-quality and cost-efficient care or offer the flexibility to make practice changes that enable improved access, care coordination, patient engagement, and quality.

(7) Primary care is foundational to an effective health care system and evidence supports that greater use of primary care has been associated with lower costs, higher patient satisfaction, reduced low birth weight, fewer hospitalizations and emergency department visits, and lower mortality, among other key outcomes. However, the United States as a whole spends a far lower share of health care expenditures on primary care and experiences worse outcomes in life expectancy and mortality than other countries.

(8) Behavioral health needs are common among Californians, with most who need it not receiving treatment. National research finds that persons with mental health or substance use disorders have approximately two to three times higher medical costs than those with no behavioral health diagnosis. This research also shows that total health care spending on mental health and substance use disorder services have remained relatively flat between 2012 and 2017. Models that integrate primary care and behavioral health services have been shown to improve access to effective behavioral health services that improve health outcomes, as well as deliver a return on investment by reducing downstream health care costs.

(9) Surveys show that people are delaying or going without care due to concerns about cost, or are getting care but struggling to pay the resulting bill. In California, one in four people report problems paying or being unable to pay their medical bills, with two-thirds cutting back on basic household items like food and clothing to pay those bills. Concerns about affordability of coverage and care are expected to be exacerbated during the economic recession related to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among lower-wage workers.

(10) High drug prices contribute significantly to health care costs. Prescription drugs account for nearly one-fifth of health care spending. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project that prescription drug spending will grow faster and outpace other categories of health care spending in the years to come. Cost-effectiveness analyses often find that drugs are priced in excess of the value they deliver to patients.

(11) The State of California has a substantial public interest in the price and cost of health care coverage. California is a major purchaser through the Public Employees’ Retirement System, the State Department of Health Care Services, the Department of General Services, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and other entities acting on behalf of a state purchaser. The government also provides major tax expenditures through the tax exclusion of employer-sponsored coverage and tax deductibility of coverage purchased by individuals, as well as tax deductibility of excess health care costs for individuals and families.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to have a comprehensive view of health care spending, cost trends, and variation to inform actions to reduce the overall rate of growth in health care costs while maintaining quality of care, with the goal of improving affordability, access, and equity of health care for Californians.

(c) It is the intent of the Legislature to encourage policies, payments, and initiatives that improve the affordability, quality, equity, efficiency, access, and value of health care service delivery, with a particular focus on ensuring health equity and reducing disparities in care, access, and outcomes across California.

(d) It is the intent of the Legislature to recognize and consider the unique health care needs of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses and the associated challenges with access, affordability, equity, quality, and delivery of health care.

(e) It is the intent of the Legislature for the State of California to achieve more affordable health care and better outcomes by consistently measuring and promoting sustained systemwide investment in primary care and behavioral health.

(f) It is the intent of the Legislature to facilitate increased adoption of alternative payment models that reward high-quality and cost-efficient care, including strategies for shared savings and downside risk arrangements and population-based payments.

(g) It is the intent of the Legislature to promote the goal of health care affordability while recognizing the need to maintain and increase the supply of trained, culturally and linguistically competent health care workers, and to monitor the effects of cost containment efforts on health care workforce stability, high-quality health care jobs, and the training needs of health care workers. It is the intent of the Legislature that cost containment does not constrain the health care workforce that California needs, including the competitive wages and benefits of frontline health care workers.

(h) It is the intent of the Legislature that health care cost targets not be used to place a floor or ceiling on health care workforce compensation.

(i) It is the intent of the Legislature to increase transparency on mergers, acquisitions, and corporate affiliations involving health care service plans, health insurers, hospitals or hospital systems, physician organizations, pharmacy benefit managers, and other health care entities that may impact market competition and affordability for consumers and purchasers.

(j) It is the intent of the Legislature to analyze cost and quality trends in the pharmaceutical sector, study the impact of drug prices and pharmaceutical market failures on affordability, and inform policy interventions to improve competition and lower consumer costs.

(k) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this chapter to provide accountability to the State of California for the affordability and cost of health care in California.

(l) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this chapter that the setting of health care cost targets distinguish between health care entities that deliver cost-efficient, high quality care and those that deliver high-cost care without commensurate improvements in overall quality.

(m) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this chapter that enforcement actions to address growth in per capita total health care expenditures are implemented in a progressive manner, such that health care entities are assisted to come into compliance with cost targets, including through technical assistance and performance improvement plans, before assessing administrative penalties unless there are egregious violations as specified in Section 127502.5.

(n) To avoid duplication of efforts and to avoid inconsistency between federal and state laws, it is the intent of the Legislature that collaboration occur between relevant regulatory agencies regarding whether a health care entity is in compliance or noncompliance with the cost targets.

(o) It is the intent of the Legislature, therefore, to establish a single entity within state government charged with doing all of the following:

(1) Developing a comprehensive strategy for cost containment in California, including measuring progress towards reducing the rate of growth in per capita total health care spending and ultimately lowering consumer spending on premiums and out-of-pocket costs, while maintaining quality, access, and equity of care, as well as promoting workforce stability and maintaining high-quality health care jobs.

(2) Addressing cost increases in excess of health care cost targets through public transparency, opportunities for remediation, and other progressive enforcement actions to achieve cost targets that optimize value in health care spending.

(3) Referring transactions that may reduce market competition or increase costs to the Attorney General for further review.

(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 47, Sec. 19. (SB 184) Effective June 30, 2022.)