The Legislative Committee carries out CAJPA’s core mission of legislative advocacy on behalf of its public risk pool members. The Committee monitors bills introduced in the California Legislature and takes positions when appropriate, guided by Board-approved platforms and the potential impact of the bill. The Committee focuses on legislation that would impact the financial health, operations, or governance of public risk pools and by extension, the ability of the member local agencies to serve their constituents. We keep CAJPA members informed about key bills and engage them in advocacy when the power of a united voice is important to our success.

CAJPA supports a managed competition approach with a system of regionally empowered Joint Powers Authorities. These JPAs will pool their member risks to enable cost control through proven managed care measures. With the growth of JPAs, claims and associated risk becomes predictable, and utilization can stabilize. CAJPA views these regional authorities as encouraging a more competitive market system and will ultimately prove to be more effective than a regulatory approach.

CAJPA Supports:

• Legislation that promotes cost and quality transparency of medical providers and pharmacy benefit managers.
• Legislation that addresses anti-competitive medical provider consolidation.
• Legislation that promotes patient access to virtual medical and mental health care.
• Legislation that holds drug manufacturers accountable for skyrocketing prices.
• Legislation that supports efforts to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse.

CAJPA Opposes:

• New or expanded coverage mandates that increase the cost of insurance for all.
• Legislation that restricts the ability of health plans to steer members to high value health care providers.
• Legislation that restricts the ability of health plans to administer drug formularies and coverage limits that emphasize high value and appropriate drugs.
• Unfunded and poorly drafted Single Payor legislation.

CAJPA strongly supports the ability of local governmental entities to form Joint Powers Authorities. We recognize that when JPAs are formed with an eye towards common geographic, functional, and philosophical needs, it allows entities to more efficiently deliver services that meet the needs of the people we serve. The savings of tax dollars, using economies of scale, allow the individual JPA members to deliver a higher level of basic services, such as education, public safety, and infrastructure maintenance, to its primary benefactors, the community and its taxpayers. As a result of the benefits JPAs provide to their members and constituents, CAJPA advocates the following to preserve and strengthen the JPA concept::

CAJPA Supports:

• Broadening of the ability of JPAs to prudently invest their funds and purchase goods and services.

CAJPA Opposes:

• Local, state, or federal law or regulation that would lessen JPAs’ authority or inhibit their ability to lawfully deliver goods and services to their members.
• Local, state, or federal law or regulations that directly or indirectly increase the cost to JPAs and their members.

CAJPA closely monitors legislative activity and takes positions on proposed legislation that could impact our member public entities. The CAJPA Safety/Loss Control Subcommittee monitors those bills and issues that could impact the safety and health of our employees and the general public.

CAJPA Supports:

• Legislation that seeks to establish consistency between state and federal safety and risk management standards involving public agencies.
• Well-balanced and fair legislation that promotes health standards and safety regulations for public agencies to implement in the interest of the greater good.
• Use of loss control strategies to reduce risks.
• Efforts to provide review of and comment on standards being considered by the Cal-OSHA Standards Board.
• Efforts to establish and maintain non-arbitrary, transparent, and data driven decision making to facilitate legislation, programs, and policies that positively impact the health and welfare of employees and the general public.
• Efforts to control cybercrime.
• Monitoring and when applicable taking position on legislation affecting public safety and health.

CAJPA supports legislation that facilitates the use of public agency funds for their intended purpose of providing services to the communities. CAJPA supports legislation that restores the immunities from tort claims and reduces the liabilities of public agencies.

CAJPA Supports:

• Establish maximum limitations on general damages.
• Eliminate joint liability as it applies to economic damages.
• Establish the use of actual medical expenses incurred as proof for general as well as special damages.
• Restrict or eliminate the application of the rule against collateral sources as a means of reducing damages.
• Restore the immunities restricted or eliminated by legislation or judiciary decisions.
• Maintain, to the extent it exists, and regain, where it has been eliminated, the right of public agencies to contractually transfer the risk of loss.
• Increase minimum automobile insurance limits to a level commensurate with taking financial responsibilities for the use of the vehicle.
• Enhance the ability of public agencies to use periodic payments as satisfaction of a judgment

CAJPA supports legislation that preserves the original intent of the workers’ compensation system: to deliver prompt and fair benefits to workers who are injured on the job. We believe that the system should promote employee health, function, and return to work. We resist legislation that would result in increased litigation; excessive costs; expansion of injury “presumptions” for special classes of employees; or erosion of workers’ compensation as the exclusive remedy for work-related injuries.p>

CAJPA Supports:

• Continued enforcement of workers’ compensation as the exclusive remedy for injuries arising out of and in the course of employment.
• Consistent application of the AOE/COE standard for determining what injuries are covered, for all employees.
• Statewide fee schedules that control the cost of required medical and expense services allocated to claims.
• Objective standards for determining permanent disability and apportionment to the actual causes of disability.
• Medical treatment that is accessible and consistent with evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and nationally recognized standards of care, enforced by medical professionals through utilization review and independent medical review.
• Streamlining the system to minimize expensive and unnecessary litigation, including information to injured workers that is relevant and easy to understand.
• Vigorous efforts to reduce or eliminate fraud within the workers’ compensation system, perpetrated by any party to the system.