Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) announced Monday that her years of work to authorize and expand Telehealth services for California patients have paid off as AB 32 was signed Sunday by Governor Gavin Newsom.
Curry’s bipartisan bill will ensure that telehealth flexibilities created at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as enrolling with your provider via telephone or video for sensitive services, become permanent.
Although Aguiar-Curry’s work with a network of health advocates to provide and expand telehealth services began years ago, the pandemic shed light on numerous inequities in the health system.
“The COVID pandemic proved what we and our partners have known all along,” Aguiar-Curry said in a news release. “True health access does not come without using all of the tools that technology can afford our people. Services that Californians cannot obtain are services that might as well be unavailable.”
Through AB 32 will ensure that individuals – regardless of their background- have access to essential health care services such as primary care, specialty services, sexual and reproductive health care services, dental care, behavioral health services and more.
“We cannot go back to a time where individuals had to choose between going to work and going to see their healthcare providers,” Aguiar-Curry said. “With telehealth, we can meet patients
where they are at, while making sure that our clinics can keep their doors open.”■