A new bill in the California Legislature aims to restore Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented adults, allowing those ages 19 and older to access the state\u2019s health insurance program starting Jan. 1, 2027.<\/p>\n
The bill, co-written by Asm. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) is arguably the termed-out lawmaker\u2019s biggest splash of 2026, arrived after the Fresno lawmaker\u2019s nearly six-week absence from the Legislature.<\/p>\n
Driving the news: Arambula and State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D\u2013Los Angeles) introduced the measure, Senate Bill 1422, which would end California\u2019s freeze on Medi-Cal benefits for illegal immigrant adults.<\/p>\n
The Golden State ended its expansion of Medi-Cal for illegal immigrant adults after its budget deficit ballooned to $10 billion. <\/p>\n
This year, California is projected to face another $3 billion deficit. <\/p>\n
A splashy return: Arambula has had a surprisingly quiet kickoff to 2026. Facing an exit from Sacramento due to term limits and seeking a seat on the Fresno City Council, Arambula missed five weeks of legislative action in the Capitol, according to Legislative records.<\/p>\n
He would return to the floor on Feb. 11. <\/p>\n
What they\u2019re saying: \u201cThe cost of that healthcare is much more expensive than what we\u2019re proposing through SB 1422,\u201d Arambula said in a statement to McClatchy. \u201cFreezing enrollment may look like a budget solution, but it only shifts costs and escalates the financial problem.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new bill in the California Legislature aims to restore Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented adults, allowing those ages…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113,7999],"class_list":{"0":"post-200150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news","11":"tag-highlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200150","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=200150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}