Three of California’s leading healthcare organizations — the California Hospital Association, California Children’s Hospital Association, and California Primary Care Association — this week announced their support for Proposition 45, the Building an Affordable California Act, saying California cannot afford to keep delaying the hospitals, clinics, and healthcare facilities its growing patient population urgently needs.
“Children’s hospitals serve our most vulnerable patients, and every year of unnecessary delay in building or modernizing a facility has real consequences for the families counting on us,” said Ann-Louise Kuhns, president and CEO, California Children’s Hospital Association. “Prop 45 gives us a faster, more predictable path to deliver the specialized care California’s children need.”
California’s healthcare system faces surging demand for new and expanded hospitals, clinics, emergency departments, and outpatient facilities, yet projects are routinely delayed for years by bureaucratic red tape, duplicative reviews, and prolonged litigation. Those delays drive up construction costs, postpone access to care for patients, and strain health systems already under significant pressure.
“Healthcare infrastructure is essential infrastructure, and California’s outdated approval process is making it harder, slower and more expensive to build,” said Carmela Coyle, president and CEO, California Hospital Association. “Proposition 45 creates clear timelines and accountability to make sure hospitals and health facilities are there when California patients need them.”
By establishing clear, enforceable timelines and a faster, more predictable judicial review process, Prop 45 is expected to reduce approval and permitting delays for essential healthcare projects by 2–7+ years—while preserving California’s strong environmental, labor, and tribal cultural resource protections.
Prop 45 streamlines approvals for hospitals, children’s hospitals, community clinics, urgent care centers, medical office buildings, emergency response facilities, and other essential healthcare infrastructure—helping critical healthcare investments move from planning to patient care years sooner.
“Community clinics are the front door to healthcare for millions of low-income Californians, immigrants, and working families who have nowhere else to turn,” said Francisco J. Silva, president and chief executive, California Primary Care Association. “When red tape delays the expansion of a clinic in an underserved community, real people go without care. Prop 45 removes barriers that for too long have stood between our communities and the health services they need.”
Affordable CA is supported by a broad and growing coalition of more than 140 organizations — including affordable housing advocates, civil rights leaders, clean energy builders, water providers, agricultural groups, and business organizations statewide.
Learn more at YesonProp45.com.
