Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he won’t end taxpayer-backed healthcare for illegal migrants, despite being billions short on state healthcare funds.
The governor Monday requested state lawmakers provide a $2.8 billion loan to help cover expenses for Medi-Cal, California’s version of the federal Medicaid program, according to CalMatters. This request was in addition to the $3.4 billion loan the Newsom administration borrowed from the state earlier in March in order to make payments for Medi-Cal through the end of the month — totaling $6.2 billion in spending above what the state budget originally projected.
“Not on my docket,” the governor said to reporters Tuesday when asked if he would cut Medi-Cal for those living unlawfully in the country, according to KCRA 3.
Despite his refusal to consider cutting state-funded healthcare benefits to illegal migrants, Newsom acknowledged the inclusion of them into the program has contributed to ballooning costs.
“This was something we previewed in the January budget, something I previewed in other conversations with other governors in December at the Democratic Governors Association as an issue we’re seeing all across the country,” the governor said Tuesday, according to KCRA 3.
In January 2024, California became the first state in the U.S. to offer taxpayer-funded healthcare insurance to all low-income illegal immigrants, regardless of age. Previously, illegal migrants were not qualified to receive Medi-Cal benefits, but were permitted to receive emergency and pregnancy-related services as long as they met certain eligibility requirements.
California Democrats have slowly expanded Medi-Cal coverage to all low-income illegal migrants over the past decade. Roughly 700,000 illegal migrants were expected to be eligible for full coverage under Medi-Cal in December 2023. Nearly 15 million Californians currently have healthcare coverage through Medi-Cal, according to CalMatters.
However, state officials are acknowledging that more illegal migrants are enrolling in Medi-Cal than originally expected.
Michelle Bass, director of the California Department of Health Care Services which oversees Medi-Cal, estimated in January 2024 the state would be spending $2.7 billion more than what it budgeted to cover the costs of prescriptions and healthcare for newly-enrolled migrants. But according to updated estimates, it costs California around $8.5 billion from the general fund to cover illegal migrants.
Other factors have also contributed to rising Medi-Cal costs, such as increased enrollment by seniors, rising pharmaceutical costs and increased enrollment relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2015, Then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing illegal migrant children to join the program. Newsom signed a second bill in 2019 expanding coverage to young illegal migrant adults between ages 19 and 25, and expanded eligibility again in 2021 to illegal migrant adults 50 and older. The final age group, 26 to 49, became eligible to apply in January 2024.
“Just days after the Newsom Administration announced a $3.4 billion loan to cover Medi-Cal for illegal immigrants, they are now scrambling to secure an additional $2.8 billion just to keep the program solvent through June,” California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones said on social media. “Californians should not be forced to shoulder the burden of radical Democrats’ reckless financial mismanagement.”
Jones isn’t the only California Republican going on the offensive over the soaring healthcare costs for those not living in the U.S. legally.
“This is absolute insanity and the fact that this is not front-page news and covered on every local newscast — this is absolutely a crisis and it deserves the attention of all Californians,” California Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio said Tuesday. “We must immediately rescind the coverage to illegal immigrants in the state of California, we simply can’t afford it.”
“It is simply not just to put the health coverage of poor Californians — elderly, disabled, young children — at risk because California politicians want to give free handouts to people who are not even citizens,” DeMaio continued.
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