California’s Year Near Gift For Low-Income Immigrants

Beginning on Monday, nearly seven lakh undocumented immigrants residing in California will be eligible for free health care as part of one of the state’s most comprehensive coverage expansions in ten years. At some point, the endeavor will cost the state approximately $3.1 billion annually and bring California one step closer to the Democratic Party’s objective of offering health coverage to everyone of its approximately 39 million citizens.

In 2022, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and legislators reached a consensus to extend Medicaid coverage, or Medi-Cal, to all low-income individuals in the state, irrespective of their immigration status. Vice-chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee and Republican Senator Roger Niello stated, “It doesn’t make sense for us to be adding to our deficit, regardless of your position on this.” Young adults and those over 50 years old were eventually added to the program. Adults between the ages of 26 and 49 will now be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program, making them the final category.

Since the Affordable insurance Act of former President Barack Obama went into effect in 2014, allowing states to include adults who fall below 138% of the federal poverty threshold in their Medicaid programs, the update will be California’s largest expansion of health insurance. The uninsured rate in California decreased from roughly 17% to 7%. Some states have paid for part of the health care costs of certain low-income immigrants with tax monies. In 2015, California began providing health care benefits to low-income children who were not legally protected.