(The Center Square) – Amid expectations that billions of dollars a year will be cut from taxpayer-funded health care programs in California, a package of three new bills aims to reduce cancer rates and make treatment more accessible.
Senate Bill 1309, authored by Sen. Susan Rubio, D-West Covina; Assembly Bill 957, authored by Assemblymember Liz Ortega, D-Hayward, and Assembly Bill 2161, authored by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, were all introduced during the 2025-26 legislative session. None of the three lawmakers responded to The Center Square’s requests for comment.
All three bills were advocated for in Sacramento recently by the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network.
Each of the bills aims to help cancer patients as the state grapples with federal budget cuts to Medicaid, called Medi-Cal in California. In addition to the federal cuts, the state’s projected multi-year budget deficit is expected to total $35 billion a year starting in fiscal year 2027-28, according to previous reporting by The Center Square. California lawmakers expect the federal cuts to have implications to health care access and have acknowledged in recent months that California can’t make up for the budget cuts imposed by the federal budget reductions.
“Taking that into account, there’s going to be some cuts. There’s going to be things that enrollees would not have access to anymore,” Kenneth Wilkerson, California senior government relations director for the Cancer Action Network, told The Center Square on Friday. “As far as what the future is, we’re continuing to monitor to see how the impacts would affect enrollees on the ground in trying to obtain different services.”
Wilkerson said he hopes legislators pass bills to help cancer patients afford treatment and that patients with long-term illnesses have access to health care.
“That’s what I would urge lawmakers to do,” Wilkerson said. “Making sure that people with chronic conditions, cancer, enrollees going through treatment, have access to a continuum of care and it’s not disrupted.”
Senate Bill 1309, which proposes to help with the cost of lung cancer treatment, was recently re-referred to the Assembly Committee on Health after being amended.
“It matters because right now, too many patients start screening, but they don’t finish it because of the cost,” Wilkerson said. “They see the amount of the follow-up testing or the follow-up visits and get dissuaded or discouraged from not starting their treatment or to know what their treatment could be. Follow-up scans can mean the difference between catching cancer early versus late-stage diagnosis.”
While the sheer cost of those scans can keep cancer patients from even starting treatment, Wilkerson said, SB 1309 is primarily designed to combat rising costs of treatment by keeping insurance companies from imposing cost-sharing measures on patients as part of their policies. Those measures often take the form of copayments, coinsurance or deductibles, according to the legislation.
According to Wilkerson, no groups have expressed opposition to the bill.
“Currently we haven’t seen any fight or anything like that,” Wilkerson told The Center Square. “We have not received any opposition yet from the insurance companies.”
Large insurers that provide health insurance policies in California, including Blue Shield of California, the California Association of Health Plans, Anthem and United Healthcare, did not respond to The Center Square for comment or did not make anyone available to answer questions.
Another one of the bills, AB 957, would keep retailers with pharmacies from selling cigarettes and other tobacco products.
“This just reinforces public health messaging and prevention efforts,” Wilkerson said. “You shouldn’t be able to pick up a cancer-causing product in the same place you go for life-saving medication.”
According to the bill, retail stores that want to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products have to acquire a license from the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. Under AB 957, pharmacies and stores that contain pharmacies, like Rite Aid or Walgreens, would not be able to sell tobacco products.
Representatives from Rite Aid and Walgreens did not respond to The Center Square before press time on Friday.
CVS, another large pharmacy chain, said in an emailed response to The Center Square on Friday afternoon that CVS hasn’t sold tobacco products since 2014.
The Center Square also reached out to one of the largest tobacco companies in the world, Philip Morris International. Officials with Philip Morris were also unresponsive on Friday.
Assembly Bill 2161, which would exclude certain groups from work or community service requirements to remain eligible for Medi-Cal, recently passed during an Assembly Health Committee hearing. The bill now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which will determine how much of taxpayers’ money will be allocated to implementing the bill if it becomes law.
The groups excluded from work or community service requirements are foster youth, former foster youth under 26, Native Americans, parents or caregivers of children under 13, people taking care of disabled family members, veterans and other individuals, according to the legislative analysis of the bill.
“This bill really helps to not disrupt the continuum of care,” Wilkerson said. “It sets guardrails on how work requirements are implemented in Medi-Cal and really focuses on keeping eligible people covered. Cancer patients are part of that group that are at risk of losing coverage, so even short gaps in coverage can obviously delay diagnosis or interrupt treatment.”
The bill would allow cancer patients to continue accessing care without interruptions, which can be deadly, Wilkerson added.
No opposition has been expressed for that bill, according to the legislative analysis.
According to the California Cancer Registry, a program of the California Department of Public Health’s Chronic Disease Surveillance and Research Branch, an estimated 176,140 people are expected to be diagnosed with cancer this year, excluding common skin cancers.
