The final California state budget bill, SB 101, passed in June 2025, allocates more than $321 billion in state spending. Lawmakers worked to close a $12 billion deficit through a mix of solutions, including delays, sunsets, and fund transfers. While the budget was heavily debated, the Governor’s administration defended the approach as necessary to maintain critical services in the face of federal funding cuts under the Trump Administration. Following the enactment of SB 101, attention...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
In 2022, the California legislature passed Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 95, mandating the California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) study specific topics relating to antitrust law and its enforcement. The bill made legislative findings that included “[t]he idea that America has a monopoly problem is now beyond dispute”, “California should be uniquely sensitive to the threat of market concentration”, and “[n]o California statute deals expressly with monopolization or attempte...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
In January, Governor Newsom released his proposed budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year with hopes of a strong fiscal position and a surplus for California that has not been seen in recent years. However, in the face of multiple federal and state spending decisions, the final budget bill signed on June 27, 2025, although balanced, as required in California, is comprised of several solutions to close a $12 billion deficit. Governor Newsom cited the Trump Administration’s funding cuts as t...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
On May 14, Governor Newsom released the May revision to the initial 2025-2026 California budget proposal that was released in January. The May Revise proposes a total expenditure of $321.9 billion, representing a $300 million decrease from the January estimate. Despite a projected surplus in the January budget, changing national economic conditions and increased expenditure growth (especially in Medi-Cal) have resulted in a $12 billion deficit in the updated budget. In 2024, the budget’...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
The California State Legislature kicked off the first year of its 2025-2026 biennial Legislative Session on December 2, 2024. This year, the legislature got off to a sprinting start as it raced to meet the February 21, 2025 deadline to introduce new bills. Compared to last year, this year’s legislature proposed a wider swath of bills aimed at healthcare-related concerns, including enhanced merger review, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, and expanding access to both pro...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
On January 10, 2025, Governor Newsom released his proposed California state budget for the 2025-26 term. Following last year’s $46 billion budget shortfall, the Governor’s new budget looked quite different this year. Specifically, the budget had no deficits, reporting a projected surplus of $363 million due to the state’s prediction that it will collect almost $17 billion more in revenue than was originally planned. In fact, this year is slated to go down as California’s second-larges...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
The California legislation concluded the 2024 legislative session when it adjourned on August 21, 2024. Overall, the legislature introduced a variety of health care bills spanning a list of hot-topic issues from Medi-Cal eligibility to health care worker minimum wage increases. Below we recap noteworthy bills from the 2024 legislative session impacting California’s health care market that were not enacted (to learn what bills were enacted please see Recapping the 2024 California Legislative...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
Assembly Bill 2200, better known as the Guaranteed Health Care for All Act, which seeks to establish a universal single-payer healthcare system called CalCare has once again failed. Assemblymember Ash Kalra’s newest attempt at a single-payer bill is the most current in a long line of attempts to secure universal healthcare for Californians. In 2022, we wrote about Assembly Bill 1400, a single-payer universal healthcare bill that would see coverage expand to every resident within the state o...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
