Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Carmela Coyle

33. Carmela Coyle

Carmela Coyle is the President and CEO of the California Hospital Association, which represents more than 400 hospitals throughout the Golden State. Given massive impending cuts to federal Medicaid spending, the state’s seemingly constant lack of health care workers and the never-ending fiscal distress of rural hospitals, it is a job that should come with a lifetime supply of antacids. She was a big player in last year’s Prop. 35 ballot measure victory, which ensured that somewhere between $2 billion and $5 billion of annual special tax revenue will go to Medi-Cal. On the flip side, she led the fight last spring against the effort to cap health industry spending increases, limiting growth to 3 percent by 2029. Alas, the California Office of Health Care Affordability approved the cap, proving that even she can’t win them all. Coyle is nonetheless a fierce and adept warrior for the state’s hospitals, and a force to be reckoned with at all times. She has led CHA since 2017 and previously headed the Maryland Hospital Association.

Updated Aug. 26, 2025