republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/ab-792.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health care coverage: California Health Benefit Exchange."
description: "Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, requires each state to, by January 1, 2014, establish an American Health Benefit Exchange that makes available qualified health plans to qualified individuals and small employers. Existing state law establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange within state government, 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 small employers by January 1, 2014."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 792"
citation: "California AB 792 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health care coverage: California Health Benefit Exchange."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bonilla"]
version_count: 11
action_count: 34
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2011-02-17"
last_action: "2012-09-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d8ccaa4f-c190-455d-8ffe-69ed6ddf64d9"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792"
source_hash: "0bdf593c6be7d39027854f4c4569ed90cc8a5aac693a49247ec4830dbdce2311"
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 792 (20112012) — Health care coverage: California Health Benefit Exchange.

Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, requires each state to, by January 1, 2014, establish an American Health Benefit Exchange that makes available qualified health plans to qualified individuals and small employers. Existing state law establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange within state government, 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 small employers by January 1, 2014.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/17/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79299INT)
2. **04/14/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79298AMD)
3. **05/10/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79297AMD)
4. **05/27/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79296AMD)
5. **06/30/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79295AMD)
6. **08/17/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79294AMD)
7. **08/21/12 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79293AMD)
8. **08/24/12 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79292AMD)
9. **09/30/12 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79290CHP)
10. **AB792** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792)
11. **09/11/12 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB792&version=20110AB79291ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **7–2** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Judiciary. — **5–3** (pass) · upper
- AB 792 BONILLA Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **51–29** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **11–6** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **3–2** (pass) · upper
- Placed on Appropriations Suspense file. — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on Judiciary. — **13–6** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB792 Bonilla By De León — **23–13** (pass) · upper
- AB 792 BONILLA Assembly Third Reading — **50–26** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bonilla — primary (person)
- Huffman — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2011-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2011-02-18** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2011-03-10** Referred to Coms. on HEALTH and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-05** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2011-04-14** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-04-25** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-27** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 13. Noes 6.) (April 26). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-09** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 2.) (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`
- **2011-05-18** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-27** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 11. Noes 6.) (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`
- **2011-06-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 50. Noes 26. Page 1743.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-06-01** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2011-06-08** Referred to Coms. on HEALTH and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2011-06-30** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 5. Noes 3.) (June 29). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-06-30** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-07-06** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 3. Noes 2.) (July 5). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-08-15** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2011-08-17** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-08-25** In committee: Held under submission.
- **2012-08-20** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 16). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-08-21** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-08-24** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-3, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-08-27** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-08-29** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 23. Noes 13. Page 4952.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-08-29** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 31 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2012-08-30** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Page 6605.)
- **2012-08-30** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 51. Noes 29. Page 6623.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2012-09-13** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 12:15 p.m.
- **2012-09-30** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2012-09-30** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 851, Statutes of 2012.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d8ccaa4f-c190-455d-8ffe-69ed6ddf64d9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).