Some California state senators are spending their spring break up north, on a weeklong trip to Canada to study its single-payer healthcare system.

In November, California voters defeated a ballot proposal that would have given state government more control over drug prices. It was a victory for pharmaceutical companies, which spent more than $100 million campaigning against the measure.

President Donald Trump's administration has formally adopted regulations that could help increase the stability of the individual major medical insurance market, and the Affordable Care Act exchange system, in 2018.

Rep. Dave Brat, one of the conservative Freedom Caucus leaders whose resistance helped undermine the Republican health care proposal last month, says White House and congressional negotiators are close to a compromise that he predicts will pass the House in the next three weeks.

As the nation’s Republican leaders huddle to reconsider their plans to “repeal and replace” the nation’s health law, advocates for universal health coverage press on in California, armed with renewed political will and a new set of proposals.

The House on Wednesday passed a bill that could protect and keep costs down for small and mid-sized self-insured employers.