Sacramento - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced SB 221, which would require health plans and insurers to provide patients with timely follow-up care for mental health issues and substance use disorders. California’s current law requires that Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and insurers provide initial care for patients within ten business days following enrollment. But, under current interpretation of the law, health plans and insurers are not required to provide timely subsequent care for patients after an initial appointment.
Press Releases
Sacramento – Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has introduced SB 110 to address the worsening methamphetamine addiction crisis facing our state. The Recovery Incentives Act legalizes the substance use disorder treatment known as “contingency management,” and authorizes Medi-Cal to cover it. Contingency management has proven to be the most effective method of treatment for methamphetamine addiction, and is frequently used as a treatment program by the Veterans Affairs Administration.
SAN FRANCISCO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) released the following statement regarding armed rioters entering the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.:
SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced new legislation, Senate Bill 107, to expand access to CalFresh food benefits for seniors and for all Californians. COVID-19 has exposed the depth of food insecurity in California and the need to shore up our food security safety net.
SB 107 will make it much easier for people to apply for CalFresh, by allowing people to apply by phone (currently, people must apply in person) and by creating a simplified application process for seniors and people with disabilities.
Sacramento - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) today announced the introduction of SB 73, legislation that would end mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. This would repeal state law established during the height of the War on Drugs era in 1986, which enacted these mandatory minimum sentences. The War on Drugs has since been widely acknowledged as a racist policy failure given its foundational role in building the system of mass incarceration that exists in the United States.
Sacramento - Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation, Senate Bill 57, to legalize overdose prevention programs, also known as safe consumption sites or safe injection sites, as a pilot program in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles Counties. Each of the pilot areas will decide locally whether to participate, and SB 57 simply removes the state prohibition that currently makes such programs illegal.
Sacramento - Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced SB 10, which provides a powerful tool for local governments to upzone neighborhoods to 10 unit apartment buildings in an expedited process, as long as the upzoned areas are not sprawl. By allowing cities to increase density in a sensible way, SB 10 will help ease California’s housing affordability crisis and climate crisis, spurred by a statewide shortage of 3.5 million homes. This housing crisis has only worsened due to COVID-19 and its economic impacts.
SACRAMENTO - Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) released the following statement as the California Department of Housing and Community Development announced that San Francisco would receive $44,840,003 in grant funding to create permanent housing for for those experiencing homelessness or at-risk of experiencing homelessness. This funding will allow the city of San Francisco to acquire a hotel and convert it into 232 units of permanent housing for some of the most at-risk individuals in our community.
SAN FRANCISCO - Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), released the following statement in response to a Wall Street Journal op-ed written by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson that attacks Senator Wiener’s key pieces of housing legislation: SB 50 and its predecessor SB 827. SB 50 would have reformed zoning laws to legalize affordable housing and multifamily housing across California in areas connected to good jobs and transit.