republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/ab-1296.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health Care Eligibility, Enrollment, and Retention Act."
description: "Existing law provides for various programs to provide health care coverage to persons with limited financial resources, including the Medi-Cal program and the Healthy Families Program. Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , requires each state to, by January 1, 2014, establish an American Health Benefit Exchange that facilitates the purchase of qualified health plans by qualified individuals and qualified small employers, as specified, and meets certain other requirements. Existing law, the California Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, creates the California Health Benefit Exchange (Exchange) , specifies the powers and duties of the board governing the Exchange relative to determining eligibility for enrollment in the Exchange and arranging for coverage under qualified health plans, and requires the board to facilitate the purchase of qualified health plans through the Exchange by qualified individuals and qualified small employers by January 1, 2014."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 1296"
citation: "California AB 1296 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health Care Eligibility", "Enrollment", "and Retention Act."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bonilla"]
version_count: 11
action_count: 33
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2011-02-18"
last_action: "2011-10-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c9d672a5-c5bf-4210-bf90-8749561a9002"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296"
source_hash: "c04accfebe3cf0a651010e14e1b2fc1ac71ad6a9f66bf7b4bfd93edc0dd8deba"
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 1296 (20112012) — Health Care Eligibility, Enrollment, and Retention Act.

Existing law provides for various programs to provide health care coverage to persons with limited financial resources, including the Medi-Cal program and the Healthy Families Program. Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , requires each state to, by January 1, 2014, establish an American Health Benefit Exchange that facilitates the purchase of qualified health plans by qualified individuals and qualified small employers, as specified, and meets certain other requirements. Existing law, the California Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, creates the California Health Benefit Exchange (Exchange) , specifies the powers and duties of the board governing the Exchange relative to determining eligibility for enrollment in the Exchange and arranging for coverage under qualified health plans, and requires the board to facilitate the purchase of qualified health plans through the Exchange by qualified individuals and qualified small employers by January 1, 2014.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/18/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129699INT)
2. **04/25/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129698AMD)
3. **05/10/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129697AMD)
4. **05/27/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129696AMD)
5. **06/28/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129695AMD)
6. **07/13/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129694AMD)
7. **08/30/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129693AMD)
8. **09/01/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129692AMD)
9. **10/09/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129690CHP)
10. **AB1296** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296)
11. **09/20/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1296&version=20110AB129691ENR)

## Votes

- AB 1296 BONILLA Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **53–26** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **12–5** (pass) · lower
- Placed on Appropriations Suspense file. — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB1296 Bonilla By Hernandez — **23–14** (pass) · upper
- AB 1296 BONILLA Assembly Third Reading — **51–27** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **6–3** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, and re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **6–3** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **13–6** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bonilla — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2011-02-18** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2011-02-20** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2011-03-21** Referred to Coms. on HEALTH and HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2011-03-29** Re-referred to Coms. on HUM. S. and HEALTH pursuant to Assembly Rule 96. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-25** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HUM. S. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-04-25** Re-referred to Com. on HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-25** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. pursuant to Assembly Rule 96. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-26** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2011-05-09** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 13. Noes 6.) (May 3). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-10** Read second time and amended. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-05-11** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-27** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-27** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 12. Noes 5.) (May 27). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-27** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-05-31** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-06-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 51. Noes 27. Page 1811.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-06-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2011-06-16** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2011-06-23** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2011-06-28** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-07-12** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 3.) (July 6). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-07-13** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-08-15** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2011-08-29** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 6. Noes 3.) (August 25). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-08-30** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-01** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-3, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-02** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-09-07** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 23. Noes 14. Page 2367.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-09-07** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2011-09-08** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 53. Noes 26. Page 3094.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-22** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 12:30 p.m.
- **2011-10-09** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-10-09** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 641, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c9d672a5-c5bf-4210-bf90-8749561a9002`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).