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Health & Saf. Code, § 1399.851 · Article 11.8. Individual Access to Health Care Coverage

Health & Saf. Code, § 1399.851

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) Commencing October 1, 2013, a health care service plan or solicitor shall not, directly or indirectly, engage in the following activities:

(1) Encourage or direct an individual to refrain from filing an application for individual coverage with a plan because of the health status, claims experience, industry, occupation, or geographic location, provided that the location is within the plan’s approved service area, of the individual.

(2) Encourage or direct an individual to seek individual coverage from another plan or health insurer or the California Health Benefit Exchange because of the health status, claims experience, industry, occupation, or geographic location, provided that the location is within the plan’s approved service area, of the individual.

(3) Employ marketing practices or benefit designs that will have the effect of discouraging the enrollment of individuals with significant health needs or discriminate based on an individual’s race, color, national origin, present or predicted disability, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, expected length of life, degree of medical dependency, quality of life, or other health conditions.

(b) Commencing October 1, 2013, a health care service plan shall not, directly or indirectly, enter into any contract, agreement, or arrangement with a solicitor that provides for or results in the compensation paid to a solicitor for the sale of an individual health benefit plan to be varied because of the health status, claims experience, industry, occupation, or geographic location of the individual. This subdivision does not apply to a compensation arrangement that provides compensation to a solicitor on the basis of percentage of premium, provided that the percentage shall not vary because of the health status, claims experience, industry, occupation, or geographic area of the individual.

(c) This section shall only apply with respect to individual health benefit plans for policy years on or after January 1, 2014.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Added by Stats. 2013, 1st Ex. Sess., Ch. 2, Sec. 18. (SB 2 1x) Effective September 30, 2013.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&sectionNum=1399.851.
Text hash
sha256 0975b4832373a39d46f6c6e2695ef66530274649a3aeb33510653b5f9a78dcc6
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.