Bill Text: CA AR58 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relative to access to care.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-04-29 - Read. Adopted. (Ayes 74. Noes 0.). [AR58 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AR58-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
House Resolution
No. 58
| Introduced by Assembly Member Jackson |
September 06, 2023 |
Relative to access to care.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
HR 58, as introduced, Jackson.
Digest Key
Bill Text
WHEREAS, Reliable and safe access to medical care includes reliable access to psychiatric medications; and
WHEREAS, Efforts to reduce mental health stigma, increase mental health awareness, and improve recognition of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by healthcare providers, parents, and teachers, along with changes in ADHD diagnostic criteria, have led to an increase in ADHD diagnoses and increased demand for stimulants over the past few decades; and
WHEREAS, The increased recognition and need for treatment of ADHD has led to a recent shortage of ADHD medications in the United States that represents an urgent mental health crisis with potential for irreparable harm to patients; and
WHEREAS, The irreparable harm from a lack of access to ADHD medications accrues to: (1) children who regress behaviorally and academically; (2) adults who have been successfully treated with ADHD medications for years but are now unable to perform in their jobs and function in other areas of life; and (3) communities that are experiencing increasing illicit substance distribution, car accidents, and prevalence of depression, anxiety, and other comorbidities of untreated ADHD; and
WHEREAS, The power of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to limit the supply of ADHD medications should be exercised in a way that responds to shortages in medically necessary medications in a coordinated manner to ensure access by patients that require those medications to treat disabling ADHD; and
WHEREAS, The DEA has thus far declined to increase the quotas that it has imposed to limit access by pharmaceutical manufacturers to the materials necessary to produce ADHD medications, despite calls from those manufacturers to increase the quotas to meet current demand; and
WHEREAS, The DEA has presented no justification for maintaining the quotas beyond its unsubstantiated claims that the manufacturers already have enough materials to produce ADHD medications; and
WHEREAS, There is ongoing damage to the health of Californians with ADHD imposed by the current critical shortage of medication to treat this condition; and
WHEREAS, There is a necessity of requesting federal action to remove any unjustified barriers to increase the supply of medications that are created by DEA quotas that limit the availability of ingredients essential to produce these medications by legitimate manufacturers; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the Assembly urges the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) to act to: (1) hold pharmaceutical companies, distributors, and pharmacies accountable for taking actions to ameliorate the current ADHD medication shortage and develop initiatives for the prevention and management of further shortages of ADHD medications and (2) urgently meet with United States Department of Health and Human Services, and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency regarding modification of any insufficiently justified quotas on the supply of ingredients to manufacturers of critical ADHD medications; and be it further
Resolved, That The Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
