Plain English Breakdown
Checked against official source text during the last sync.
Health Care Coverage and Forestry Rules
This law requires health plans to cover more colorectal cancer screening tests without cost sharing if they meet specific federal or American Cancer Society guidelines, and it allows up to 35 small wildfire fuel reduction projects in timberlands each year to use a single plan for environmental review.
What This Bill Does
- Requires health insurance policies issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2022, to cover additional colorectal cancer screening tests without cost sharing if the test is approved by the FDA and meets federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requirements or American Cancer Society guidelines.
- Authorizes up to 35 projects per year exclusively for noncommercial wildfire fuel reduction in timberlands smaller than 1,500 acres that are paid with public funds to prepare a single timber harvesting plan instead of following standard environmental review steps under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
- States that willful violations by health care service plans or persons conducting unauthorized timber operations remain crimes.
- Repeals these forestry provisions on January 1, 2031.
Who It Names or Affects
- Health insurers and health care service plans regulated in California.
- People who own, manage, or conduct noncommercial wildfire fuel reduction timber operations on land smaller than 1,500 acres paid for with public funds.
- Local agencies that may oversee the approved forestry projects.
Terms To Know
- Cost sharing
- The amount a patient must pay out of pocket, such as copayments or deductibles, for medical services.
- Timber harvesting plan
- A document prepared by a registered professional forester that describes how trees will be cut and the land managed.
- CEQA
- The California Environmental Quality Act, which requires agencies to study environmental impacts before approving projects.
Limits and Unknowns
- The forestry provisions in this bill will end on January 1, 2031.
- The law states that no state reimbursement is required for local costs but does not explain the specific reason why.