Existing law, until January 1, 2015, authorizes a pharmacist or physician to furnish 30 or fewer hypodermic needles and syringes for human use to a person 18 years of age or older solely for his or her personal use. This bill would delete that January 1, 2015, date of repeal and would, until January 1, 2021, authorize a pharmacist or physician to provide an unlimited number of hypodermic needles and syringes to a person 18 years of age or older solely for his or her personal use. Under existing law it is unlawful to possess an opium pipe or any device, contrivance, instrument, or paraphanelia used for unlawfully injecting or smoking specified controlled substances. Existing law, until January 1, 2015, exempts from this prohibition the possession of 30 or fewer hypodermic needles and syringes if acquired from an authorized source, and from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2018, inclusive, exempts from this prohibition possession solely for personal use of 10 or fewer hypodermic needles or syringes if acquired from an authorized source. This bill would, instead, and until January 1, 2021, exempt the possession of any amount of hypodermic needles and syringes that are acquired from an authorized source.
Sponsored bills
This measure would encourage the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development to work in coordination with the Legislature to develop comprehensive trade promotion and foreign investment activities that encourage stronger economic ties with El Salvador.
This measure would urge the federal government to take steps to reform the outdated and inadequate Official Poverty Measure to better reflect poverty and the unmet needs demonstrated by the Supplemental Poverty Measure.
Existing law provides for the regulation of disability insurers by the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law requires every admitted disability insurer or other entity liable for any loss due to health insurance fraud doing business in California to pay an annual special purpose assessment that does not exceed $0.20 per year for each insured under an individual or group insurance policy it issues in this state, in order to fund increased investigation and prosecution of fraudulent disability insurance claims. Existing law requires that 30% of those funds be distributed to the Fraud Division of the Department of Insurance for enhanced investigative efforts and that the other 70% be distributed to local district attorneys for the investigation and prosecution of disability insurance fraud cases, as specified. This bill would instead require that the annual special purpose assessment be paid for each person in this state covered under an individual or group policy regardless of the situs of the contract or master group policyholder, and regardless of whether the insured has been issued an individual certificate of coverage, including blanket insurance. The bill would also require that the data supporting the special purpose assessment not be required to be submitted more often than once each calendar year, except that responses to questions from the commissioner and clarifying information regarding the data would not be considered as additional submissions of data. The bill would authorize, for group and blanket insurance contracts, insurers to rely on information requested from and provided by the group policyholder after a reasonable effort to obtain timely and accurate information.
Existing law prohibits a person from soliciting, negotiating, or effecting contracts of insurance unless the person holds a valid license from the Insurance Commissioner to act in that capacity. Existing law requires all new applicants for license as one of specified insurance industry professionals, such as a property broker-agent, casualty broker-agent, or limited lines automobile insurance agent, to meet prelicensing education standards, as specified. Existing law requires the Insurance Commissioner to appoint a curriculum board consisting of representatives of insurance agents, brokers, insurance companies, consumer groups, and insurance adjusters, among other persons, to develop the prelicensing and continuing education curriculum. Existing law requires the curriculum board to develop or recommend courses of study covering all lines of insurance to be sold under each license, as specified. This bill would require the curriculum board to additionally develop or recommend courses of study on commercial earthquake risk management, as specified.
(1) Existing law authorizes a local or regional transit agency or a joint powers agency operating rail service to contract with designated persons to act as its agent in the enforcement of specified provisions relative to certain prohibited acts on or in public transportation systems or vehicles if the persons satisfy specified training requirements. This bill would authorize the governing board of a transit district to designate district employees, except as specified, or security officers contracted by the district, to enforce state laws relative to certain prohibited acts on or in public transportation systems or on the property, facilities, or vehicles of a transit district, if the employees or officers satisfy specified training requirements. (2) Existing law prohibits a person from doing any of specified acts with respect to the property, facilities, or vehicles of a transit district, including, among other things, violating a notice, prohibition, instruction, or direction on a sign that is intended to provide for the safety and security of transit passengers, or the safe and secure operation of the transit system. A violation of these provisions is an infraction. This bill would additionally prohibit a person from (A) knowingly giving false information to a district employee, or contracted security officer, engaged in the enforcement of a district ordinance or a state law, or otherwise obstructing the issuance of a citation for the violation of a district ordinance or a state law, or (B) violating any of the conditions established by a transit district ordinance under which a passenger may board a transit vehicle with a bicycle and where that bicycle may be stowed on the transit vehicle. The bill would also delete an obsolete provision. By providing for the creation of new crimes, this bill would thereby impose a state-mandated local program. (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
This measure would state that the Legislature supports ensuring a clean and healthy marine environment to protect existing shellfish beds and access to additional acreage for shellfish farming and restoration, and further supports a dialogue between industry, environmental, and federal and state agency leaders to develop an improved permitting process that is efficient and economical for both shellfish restoration and commercial farming.
This measure would designate September 2014 as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in the State of California.
Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacts various health care coverage market reforms that take effect with respect to plan years on or after January 1, 2014. Among other things, PPACA prohibits a group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group health insurance coverage from applying a waiting period that exceeds 90 days. Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law authorizes a group health care service plan contract and a group health insurance policy, as defined, to apply a waiting period of up to 60 days as a condition of employment if applied equally to all eligible employees and dependents. This bill would prohibit those group contracts and policies from imposing any waiting or affiliation period, as defined, and would make related conforming changes. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law provides for the regulation of grandfathered small employer health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies, as defined. Existing law requires that those contracts and policies be fairly and affirmatively renewed and prohibits construing the provisions regulating those contracts and policies from limiting enrollment in a contract or policy to open enrollment periods, as specified. Existing law requires the employer offering the plan to send a written notice to an eligible employee or dependent who fails to enroll during an open enrollment period that he or she may be excluded from coverage for a specified period of time. This bill would instead require the notice to inform the eligible employee or dependent that he or she may be excluded from eligibility for coverage until the next open enrollment period. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 10753.05 of the Insurance Code proposed by SB 959 that would become operative if this bill and SB 959 are both enacted and this bill is enacted last.