A proposal that would have increased the number of young Californians receiving needed mental health care died quietly in the Legislature last month. With no debate and no public comment, a bill that would have made it harder for insurers to reject mental health coverage to youth was placed “on suspense” by the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee. That means it will no longer be considered.
That’s not revolutionary; it happens to bills all the time. But in this case, by the state’s own reckoning, the need for such mental health care is skyrocketing. Between 2016 and 2020, anxiety or depression diagnoses for children ages 3 to 17 in California rose by 70%, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Only South Dakota saw a more dramatic rise during that period.
