Santa Cruz Democrat Gail Pellerin has been named “Assemblymember of the Year” by the National Union of Healthcare Workers for her work fighting for parity in how mental health is treated compared to other health conditions.
She will be honored Friday evening in San Francisco along with San Francisco Democrat Scott Wiener, who was named as the group’s “State Senator of the Year.”
Pellerin – whose District 28 includes large swaths of Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties – is the author of Assembly Bill 3221, which is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. It would help the Department of Managed Health Care better enforce state law by removing roadblocks that have made it difficult for the agency to conduct effective investigations. The law includes provisions that would require health plans to respond to information requests from the agency with digitally searchable data instead of reams of paper files that delay state enforcement investigations.
Pellerin also authored AB 3260, a bill that would have helped tens of thousands of Californians who get stuck in limbo when their health plans fail to respond to requests for care or resolve grievances in a timely manner. The bill would have resolved grievances in favor of patients when deadlines to reach their own resolution. It was passed overwhelmingly by the State Assembly, but never made it to a vote in the State Senate.
The union, whose members include more than 4,700 mental health clinicians at Kaiser Permanente, said in a release it hopes to work with Pellerin on a similar bill for next year’s legislative session.
“We’re proud to honor State Senator Wiener and Assemblymember Pellerin for their leadership in strengthening the rights of patients to get behavioral health care that meets their needs and empowering state enforcement agencies to hold health insurers accountable,” NUHW President Sophia Mendoza said. “California now has among the strongest mental health parity laws in the nation, and it’s incumbent on state regulators to vigilantly enforce the laws so Californians can get the care they’re legally entitled to receive.”
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