(The Center Square) \u2013 California officials told the Assembly Health Committee Tuesday that under the governor\u2019s budget proposal, the state will not be able to make up the loss of federal money cut from Medi-Cal.<\/p>\n
Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Oakland and the committee chair, asked state health officials during the hearing if the state stands a chance of backfilling the loss of federal funds. Health officials cite the state\u2019s projected budget deficit and the severe federal cuts to Medi-Cal as major financial challenges to funding the state\u2019s version of Medicaid.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the state\u2019s significant fiscal situation, it\u2019s really a matter of resources to provide full-scope coverage to the individuals who may lose coverage as a result of state budget actions or as a result of H.R. 1 changes,\u201d testified Michelle Baass, the director of the California Department of Managed Health Care Services, which oversees Medi-Cal. H.R. 1 is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs proposed by the governor\u2019s budget, we\u2019re not backfilling the loss of federal funds,” Baass said.<\/p>\n
According to data from the California Department of Health Care Services<\/a>, the number of people enrolled in Medi-Cal dropped between August 2022 and August 2025, from more than 15.2 million people to roughly 14.6 million. While the report doesn\u2019t give a reason for why Medi-Cal had fewer people enrolled in that time frame, Assembly members stressed Tuesday that a decline in Medi-Cal enrollment will continue, with many people who were eligible under previous Medi-Cal enrollment criteria<\/a> losing eligibility.<\/p>\n Starting on Jan. 1, 2026, many illegal immigrants in California<\/a> lost the ability to access publicly-funded health care.<\/p>\n The concern over who can access health care through Medi-Cal and who can\u2019t comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom released his proposed budget<\/a>, anticipating a $2.9 billion shortfall. That’s much smaller than the $18 billion budget shortfall that the Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office<\/a> predicted in a report released in November, according to previous reporting<\/a> by The Center Square. Newsom released his proposal early this month.<\/p>\n The federal budget, known as House Resolution 1<\/a>, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was passed in Congress during the summer of 2025 and included drastic cuts to a wide variety of federally-funded programs, including Medicaid and SNAP benefits, otherwise known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps. According to a report<\/a> released in November 2025 by the Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office, Medi-Cal provides health care for roughly 15 million low-income people throughout the state and is the largest program in the state\u2019s budget, costing about $200 billion between state and federal funds.<\/p>\n \u201cH.R. 1 cuts federal funding for health care by $1 trillion nationally over the next decade,\u201d Dr. Sandra Hernandez, CEO of the California Health Care Foundation, testified during the hearing on Tuesday. \u201cIn California, we estimate this will translate to billions of dollars in annual cuts. This is a hole in the budget we simply don\u2019t fill by state reserves.\u201d<\/p>\n Any money that the federal government is trying to save by cutting the Medicaid budget just passes those costs onto counties, who have to provide medical care to those who need it, according to testimony given during the committee meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, hospitals are being squeezed, clinics are being squeezed through these cuts that I agree lay squarely at the feet of the federal administration,\u201d Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, D-Santa Clara, said. \u201cWe always talk about how much something will cost, but we never talk about how much it will save in the long term.”<\/p>\n Notably absent were Republican members of the Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday, including Assemblymember Phillip Chen, R-Brea, the committee vice chair. Democratic Assembly members on the committee noted the Republicans’ absence.<\/p>\n Chen\u2019s communications staff did not respond to emails sent by The Center Square.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 California officials told the Assembly Health Committee Tuesday that under the governor\u2019s budget proposal,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75204,35059,7,9,8,8295,1755,75205],"class_list":{"0":"post-152557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-assembly-health-committee","9":"tag-assemblymember-mia-bonta","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-federal-funds","14":"tag-medi-cal","15":"tag-state-health-officials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}