California Nurses Association is committed to building a broad movement for transformative social change and confronting the powerful interests that dominate our economic and political system. We are proud to support legislation that reflects nurses’ values of caring, compassion, and community. Learn more about all our current supported California legislation.
- California Guaranteed Health Care For All Act (CalCare)
- Safeguards for A.I. in Health Care
- Keep Health Care in Human Hands
- Support for New Nursing Graduates in Rural and Underserved Areas
- Reducing Workers’ Compensation Burdens For Frontline Health Care Workers
- COMPETE Act
California Guaranteed Health Care For All Act (CalCare, A.B. 1900)
A.B. 1900 sets in motion a single-payer health care coverage system in California, called CalCare, for all residents, regardless of citizenship status. By streamlining payments and lowering per-capita health care spending, CalCare guarantees quality health care, including long-term care, without creating barriers to care or out-of-pocket costs.
By affirming health care as a right to all Californians in policy legislation, eliminating waste in the system, and paying health care providers for the actual cost of care, not based on profit, California can begin to plan for a seamless transition to CalCare.
Safeguards for A.I. in Health Care (A.B. 2575)
This bill establishes commonsense safeguards for patients and health care workers when Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is used in health care. These protections set clear rules for informing patients and workers when A.I. is being used, affirm clinicians’ ability to override A.I.-driven decisions and to exercise professional judgment without retaliation, and ensure that developers and deployers of A.I. in health care settings can be held responsible for harm.
Keep Health Care in Human Hands (A.B. 1979)
This bill prohibits health care entities from using artificial intelligence (A.I.) systems to perform health care activities that require the clinical judgment of a licensed health care professional. The bill also requires companies offering A.I. health applications that access medical records to comply with California’s medical confidentiality laws.
Together, these protections ensure that, as the use of A.I. tools expands rapidly, patient care decisions remain in the hands of licensed health care professionals and that sensitive medical information remains protected under California law.
Support for New Nursing Graduates in Rural and Underserved Areas (A.B. 2391)
A.B. 2391 establishes a statewide program to improve employment outcomes for new graduates of California community college Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) programs. This program supports job placement pathways and provides financial assistance to help newly licensed registered nurses transition into jobs in hospitals serving rural and medically underserved communities.
By strengthening the pathway from community college nursing education to community care, the program expands access to the profession, supports a diverse nursing workforce, and helps ensure communities across California have the nurses needed to provide safe patient care.
Reducing Workers’ Compensation Burdens For Frontline Health Care Workers (S.B. 632)
This bill reduces the administrative burden for registered nurses and other hospital workers to file a workers’ compensation claim by presuming certain injuries and illnesses are work-related. Removing barriers to filing a claim will help prevent unnecessary delays and denials of workers’ compensation claims and ensure health care workers receive timely treatment for work-related injuries and illnesses, enabling their quick recovery and return to work.
COMPETE Act (A.B. 1776)
The COMPETE Act modernizes the Cartwright Act, California’s century-old antitrust law, for today’s economy by codifying the recommendations of the California Law Revision Commission (CLRC), an independent state agency tasked with reviewing and recommending reforms to California law.
This bill would update the Cartwright Act by enhancing the ability of workers, patients, and other consumers to prevent harmful, anticompetitive practices by large corporations that dominate labor, health care, or other markets. Specifically, the COMPETE Act would adopt the CLRC’s recommendation to include a standard to enforce the Cartwright Act’s prohibitions on anticompetitive behavior against a single firm that has dominant market power—also known as a “single firm conduct” standard.
California Endorsements
We are proud to support congressional candidates that share nurses’ values of caring, compassion, and community. See our full list of California endorsements here »