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SACRAMLNTO >> Though COVID-19 has forced California leaders to scale back their ambitious health care agenda, legislators still managed to enact significant new laws intended to lower consumer health care spending and expand access to health coverage.

When Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom concluded the chaotic legislative year Wednesday — his deadline to sign or veto bills — what emerged wasn’t the sweeping platform he and state lawmakers had outlined at the beginning of the year. But the dozens of health care measures they approved included first-in-the-nation policies to require more comprehensive coverage of mental health and addiction and thrusting the state into the generic drugmaking business.

“We had less time, less money and less focus, but COVID makes the causes of expanding coverage and trying to control health care costs that much more important,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a Sacramento-based consumer advocacy group.

The governor also signed into law a raft of Covid-19-related bills intended to address the biggest public health emergency in a century, such as measures to stockpile protective gear for health care workers.

This year’s legislative season took place against the backdrop of an unprecedented pandemic that sparked a statewide stay-at-home order, back-to-back emergency legislative recesses, the Capitol’s first foray into remote voting and a projected $54 billion budget deficit.

Among the most controversial changes Newsom signed into law was the largest expansion of the state’s family leave program since it was enacted in 2014, an upgrade opposed by the state’s business interests. The tobacco industry also took a hit when Newsom approved a measure banning retail sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol, with exceptions made for flavored hookah products. And Newsom bucked the powerful doctors’ lobby by granting nurse practitioners the ability to practice without physician su

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