California AB 2729: Medi-Cal: presumptive eligibility.

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 Bill Text - AB-2729 Medi-Cal: Employer Responsibility for Medi-Cal Trust Fund.

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 |Add To My Favorites |Track Bill | Version: 05/18/26 - Amended Assembly
 03/19/26 - Amended Assembly
 02/20/26 - Introduced

 AB-2729 Medi-Cal: Employer Responsibility for Medi-Cal Trust Fund.(2025-2026)

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 Date Published: 05/18/2026 02:00 PM

AB2729:v97#DOCUMENTBill Start

 Amended
 IN 
 Assembly
 May 18, 2026

 Amended
 IN 
 Assembly
 March 19, 2026

 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

 Assembly Bill

No. 2729

Introduced by Assembly Member Bonta
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Addis, Ahrens, Arambula, Bryan, Elhawary, Garcia, Haney, Jackson, Kalra, Lee, McKinnor, Ortega, Pellerin, Celeste Rodriguez, Rogers, and Sharp-Collins)

February 20, 2026

 An act to add Section 14199.5 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to Medi-Cal and making an appropriation therefor. Medi-Cal, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2729, as amended, Bonta.
 Medi-Cal: Employer Responsibility for Medi-Cal Trust Fund.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is in part governed by, and funded pursuant to, federal Medicaid program provisions.

Existing federal law, Public Law 119-21, enacted on July 4, 2025, sets forth various changes to different health care programs, including certain requirements for Medicaid eligibility with regard to work or community engagement reporting, redeterminations, and cost sharing, among other factors, for certain Medicaid populations pursuant to a specified implementation timeline.

Existing law, the
 federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, imposes a certain assessment on an applicable large employer, as defined, that offers full-time employees and their dependents the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage, and for whom one or more full-time employees have been certified as having enrolled in a qualified health plan for which a premium tax credit or cost-sharing reduction is allowed or paid.

This bill would create the Employer Responsibility for Medi-Cal Trust Fund to consist of new taxes and deposits, including employer penalties specified in the Budget Act of 2026. The bill would continuously appropriate moneys in the fund to the State Department of Health Care Services
 department
 to fund the costs of administering the Medi-Cal program in a manner necessary to prevent loss of or to restore health care coverage, benefits, or access to care following the passage of federal House Resolution 1 (Public Law 119-21)and Public Law 119-21 and subsequent state budget actions. The bill would state that these provisions would become operative only if the Medicaid provisions of federal House Resolution 1 Public Law 119-21 are not repealed prior to January 1, 2027. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Digest Key

 Vote:
 2/3 
 Appropriation:
 YES 
 Fiscal Committee:
 YES 
 Local Program:
 NO 

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) Affordable and comprehensive health care coverage should be accessible to all Californians to protect their health and financial security.

(b) Fourteen million five hundred thousand Californians are covered by Medi-Cal.

(c) Despite significant progress in expanding health care coverage, an estimated 2,500,000 Californians remained uninsured in 2024, and many more are underinsured or struggle to afford care.

(d) Federal House Resolution 1 (Public Law 119-21), passed by a partisan vote in a Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President Donald J. Trump Trump, will significantly increase the number of people who are uninsured and go without the health care that they need.

(e) It is the intent of the Legislature to establish a fund within the Department of Finance that would receive deposits and to appropriate moneys to the State Department of Health Care Services for the sole purpose of preventing loss of or restoring health care coverage, benefits, or access to
 care fo