--- type: "Bill" title: "Health care decisions: decisionmakers and surrogates." description: "Existing law authorizes an adult having capacity to give an individual health care instruction and to designate a health care decisionmaker, including an agent designated in a power of attorney to make health care decisions on the person's behalf. Existing law also authorizes a patient to designate an adult as a surrogate to make health care decisions by personally informing the supervising health care provider. Existing law authorizes a patient to disqualify a person, including a family member, from acting as the patient's surrogate." jurisdiction: "us/states/ca" legislature: "California Legislature" session: "20212022" identifier: "AB 2338" citation: "California AB 2338 (20212022)" classification: ["bill"] subjects: ["Health care decisions: decisionmakers and surrogates."] status: "enacted" primary_sponsors: ["Gipson"] version_count: 7 action_count: 24 vote_count: 6 first_action: "2022-02-16" last_action: "2022-09-29" source: "openstates" source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4286cf93-4dc9-4ed9-9b18-9795ecfe0ba9" source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2338" source_hash: "b5ee708b7bba0ff59a6abdc0d430a66c975ef0db6db5313c87352bf11a5d29c9" 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 2338 (20212022) — Health care decisions: decisionmakers and surrogates. Existing law authorizes an adult having capacity to give an individual health care instruction and to designate a health care decisionmaker, including an agent designated in a power of attorney to make health care decisions on the person's behalf. Existing law also authorizes a patient to designate an adult as a surrogate to make health care decisions by personally informing the supervising health care provider. Existing law authorizes a patient to disqualify a person, including a family member, from acting as the patient's surrogate. ## Version chain The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment. 1. **02/16/22 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2338&version=20210AB233899INT) 2. **03/23/22 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2338&version=20210AB233898AMD) 3. **04/28/22 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2338&version=20210AB233897AMD) 4. **06/20/22 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2338&version=20210AB233896AMD) 5. **09/29/22 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2338&version=20210AB233894CHP) 6. **AB2338** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2338) 7. **08/24/22 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2338&version=20210AB233895ENR) ## Votes - Do pass — **10–0** (pass) · upper - Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Health] — **9–0** (pass) · lower - AB 2338 Gipson Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **75–0** (pass) · lower - 3rd Reading AB2338 Gipson By Kamlager — **38–0** (pass) · upper - Do pass as amended. — **11–1** (pass) · lower - AB 2338 Gipson Assembly Third Reading — **63–0** (pass) · lower ## Sponsors - Gipson — primary (person) ## Timeline The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote. - **2022-02-16** Read first time. To print. `reading-1` - **2022-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 19. - **2022-03-03** Referred to Coms. on JUD. and HEALTH. `referral-committee` - **2022-03-23** 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-1, reading-2` - **2022-03-24** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee` - **2022-03-29** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (March 29). Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee` - **2022-04-06** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. - **2022-04-19** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee. - **2022-04-27** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 11. Noes 1.) (April 26). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage` - **2022-04-28** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2` - **2022-05-02** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2` - **2022-05-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 63. Noes 0. Page 4819.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3` - **2022-05-24** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1` - **2022-06-01** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee` - **2022-06-09** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. - **2022-06-20** 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-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee` - **2022-06-29** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (June 28). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable` - **2022-06-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2` - **2022-08-18** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 4902.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3` - **2022-08-18** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 20 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77. - **2022-08-22** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 5984.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable` - **2022-08-29** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m. - **2022-09-29** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature` - **2022-09-29** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 782, Statutes of 2022. `became-law` ## Source OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4286cf93-4dc9-4ed9-9b18-9795ecfe0ba9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).