(1) Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to award and administer, on a competitive basis, grants for projects directed at the prevention of tobacco-related diseases. Existing law requires a local lead agency, as defined, to implement specified health education against tobacco use. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to provide leadership for the successful implementation of tobacco use prevention programs administered by local public and private schools, school districts, and county offices of education. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to conduct statewide surveillance of tobacco-related behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes, evaluate local and state tobacco control programs, evaluate the effectiveness of specified tobacco use prevention education directed at schools, and implement a tobacco use prevention media campaign, as specified.
This bill would create the Broadening Research, Education, Awareness, Treatment, and Health (BREATHE) Act of 2020. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to conduct a COPD Awareness Campaign to increase awareness of COPD, as specified, and to conduct outreach to, among others, primary care providers and family care providers. The bill would also establish the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) Awareness Fund, to be used, upon appropriation, by the department to fund those purposes. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
(2) Existing law, the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Tax Law, the violation of which is a crime, imposes a tax on distributors of cigarettes at the rate of $2.87 per package of 20 cigarettes and a tax on distributors of tobacco products, based on wholesale cost, at a rate determined annually that is equivalent to the combined rate of all taxes imposed on cigarettes, and at a rate equivalent to $0.50 per package of 20 cigarettes.
Under existing law, the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Tax Fund may only be used for specified purposes, including for tobacco-related disease research and tobacco-related disease medical care for those not able to otherwise afford these services.
This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, allow the department to use funds from the Research Account and the Unallocated Account of the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Surtax Fund for the COPD Awareness Fund along with moneys accepted by the department from grants and donations from private entities, public moneys transferred to the fund, and money from the General Fund. The bill would also allow funds from the Research Account and the Unallocated Account of the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Surtax Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be used for medical or hospital care and treatment of patients affected by COPD and similar tobacco-related diseases who cannot afford to pay for needed COPD and related disease care and treatment who cannot otherwise afford those services.

Statutes affected:
AB 2293: 104515 HSC
02/14/20 - Introduced: 104515 HSC
05/04/20 - Amended Assembly: 104515 HSC
05/11/20 - Amended Assembly: 104515 HSC
AB2293: 104515 HSC