As someone who grew up without health insurance and knows what it’s like to de-prioritize your own health because you can’t afford to make it your top concern, Ricardo has been relentlessly motivated to ensuring that all Californians have quality and affordable healthcare.

- Authored SB 562, the landmark, revolutionary bill designed to make California the first state in the union to successfully enact a single-payer, universal healthcare system.

- Authored SB 349. The United States has the worst dialysis patient outcomes in the industrialized world. Only one in three American patients on dialysis survives for five years. California’s dialysis clinics lack sufficient oversight and are understaffed leading to unsafe and unsanitary conditions. That is why I authored SB 349, which requires, commencing January 1, 2020, chronic dialysis clinics (CDCs) to meet minimum staffing ratios at all times for nurses, technicians, social workers, and registered dieticians. SB 1174 provides the Department of Public Health (DPH) with the authority to assess an administrative penalty for violations of the bill’s provisions. If clinics dispute a determination regarding an alleged deficiency or failure to correct a deficiency, they clinic may request a hearing pursuant to Health and Safety Code.