---
type: "Bill"
title: "Advance health care directives."
description: "The Health Care Decisions Law, among other things, establishes the requirements for executing a written advance health care directive that is legally sufficient to direct health care decisions. The law provides a form that may be used or modified to create an advance health care directive, and expressly does not require the use of the form."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 3211"
citation: "California AB 3211 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Advance health care directives."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Kalra"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 21
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2018-02-16"
last_action: "2018-09-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/68ed3771-12e9-4fc8-9610-f6b155b8b9a8"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3211"
source_hash: "7098c323111c11e72133495b94d271c47f06ad1a81d5fe4f09b35f128e209a73"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 3211 (20172018) — Advance health care directives.

The Health Care Decisions Law, among other things, establishes the requirements for executing a written advance health care directive that is legally sufficient to direct health care decisions. The law provides a form that may be used or modified to create an advance health care directive, and expressly does not require the use of the form.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/16/18 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3211&version=20170AB321199INT)
2. **03/22/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3211&version=20170AB321198AMD)
3. **04/12/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3211&version=20170AB321197AMD)
4. **06/25/18 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3211&version=20170AB321196AMD)
5. **07/05/18 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3211&version=20170AB321195AMD)
6. **09/06/18 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3211&version=20170AB321193CHP)
7. **AB3211** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3211)
8. **08/24/18 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3211&version=20170AB321194ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading AB3211 Kalra By Allen — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 3211 KALRA Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 3211 KALRA Assembly Third Reading — **73–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Kalra — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-02-16** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2018-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 19.
- **2018-03-22** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-22** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-04-02** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-12** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-04-16** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-17** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (April 17). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-04-18** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-04-19** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 4788.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-04-19** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2018-05-03** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2018-06-25** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD. `amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-2, reading-1, amendment-introduction`
- **2018-07-03** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (July 3). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2018-07-05** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2018-08-20** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 5438.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-08-20** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 22 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2018-08-23** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 6505.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2018-08-29** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2018-09-06** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2018-09-06** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 287, Statutes of 2018.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/68ed3771-12e9-4fc8-9610-f6b155b8b9a8`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).