Assembly Bill 45 (Stone) This bill permanently eliminates medical and dental copayments for people inside of California’s jails and prisons. People in California prisons were being charged a $5 copayment when they initiated medical or dental services. The average wage for people in prisons is $0.08 an hour meaning that medical and dental visits could have cost more than one week’s pay. Jails were authorized to charge up to $3 per copayment, but no wages are earned while people are incarcerated in jails. On March 1, 2019, CDCR announced they would stop charging a $5 copay to people in their facilities, which was a huge victory and a response to the pressure advocates applied. However, AB 45 codified this practice so that CDCR could no longer charge a copayment in the future. In addition, all county jails will stop charging copayments as a result of this bill.
Co-Sponsors of AB 45 include: Initiate Justice, ACLU of California, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Union of American Physicists and Dentists.
Status
This bill was passed by the CA Legislature in 2019 and became effective on January 1, 2020.