republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/sb-51.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health care coverage."
description: "Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law prohibits a health care service plan from expending for administrative costs, as defined, an excessive amount of the payments the plan receives for providing health care services to its subscribers and enrollees."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "SB 51"
citation: "California SB 51 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health care coverage."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Alquist"]
version_count: 11
action_count: 31
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2010-12-15"
last_action: "2011-10-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/983d8ce1-d79a-4d4e-bd11-f5a118998f4a"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51"
source_hash: "dffee6970e4886f40f2342e8e8f2572a544c2cd827f2bff7b5b0acc654e59fc8"
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 SB 51 (20112012) — Health care coverage.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law prohibits a health care service plan from expending for administrative costs, as defined, an excessive amount of the payments the plan receives for providing health care services to its subscribers and enrollees.

## Version chain

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

1. **12/15/10 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5199INT)
2. **04/05/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5198AMD)
3. **04/25/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5197AMD)
4. **05/09/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5196AMD)
5. **05/31/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5195AMD)
6. **06/28/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5194AMD)
7. **07/11/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5193AMD)
8. **09/01/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5192AMD)
9. **10/09/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5190CHP)
10. **SB51** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51)
11. **09/13/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB51&version=20110SB5191ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended, and re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **6–3** (pass) · upper
- Placed on Appropriations Suspense file. — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Unfinished Supp 1 SB51 Alquist Concurrence — **25–14** (pass) · upper
- SB 51 Alquist Senate Third Reading By PAN — **53–26** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **12–5** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **6–3** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading — **25–15** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **13–6** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Alquist — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2010-12-15** Introduced. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction`
- **2010-12-16** From printer. May be acted upon on or after January 15.
- **2011-01-03** Read first time. `reading-1`
- **2011-01-20** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2011-03-31** Set for hearing April 27.
- **2011-04-05** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `reading-2, reading-1, committee-passage, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-04-25** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `reading-2, reading-1, committee-passage, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-05-05** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 3. Page 785.) (April 27). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-09** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-05-13** Set for hearing May 23.
- **2011-05-23** Placed on APPR. suspense file.
- **2011-05-25** Set for hearing May 26.
- **2011-05-27** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 6. Noes 3. Page 1111.) (May 26). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-31** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-06-01** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 25. Noes 15. Page 1235.) Ordered to the Assembly. `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-06-02** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2011-06-16** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2011-06-28** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `reading-2, reading-1, committee-passage, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-07-07** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 13. Noes 6.) (July 5). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-07-11** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-08-17** Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2011-08-26** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 5.) (August 25). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-08-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-09-01** Read third time and amended. (Page 2770.) `reading-3, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-01** Ordered to third reading.
- **2011-09-09** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 53. Noes 26. Page 3168.) Ordered to the Senate. `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-09-09** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2011-09-09** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 25. Noes 14. Page 2461.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-16** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 10:30 a.m.
- **2011-10-09** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-10-09** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 644, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/983d8ce1-d79a-4d4e-bd11-f5a118998f4a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).