{"id":514275,"date":"2026-03-10T03:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T03:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514275\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T03:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T03:59:10","slug":"will-california-restore-medi-cal-for-undocumented-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514275\/","title":{"rendered":"Will California restore Medi-Cal for undocumented immigrants?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kristen Hwang<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\""A\"
\n\t\t\t\tA UCSF-Fresno staff member checks the blood sugar of a farmworker during a check-up in an equipment barn during a Rural Mobile Health program visit at a farm outside of Helm on June 16, 2025. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters\/CatchLight Local<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Only two Democratic lawmakers voted against Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s budget proposal last year curtailing health care for undocumented immigrants. Sen. Maria Elena Durazo was one them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, Durazo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, is proposing legislation that would reverse many of those immigrant health care cuts and reinstate Medi-Cal eligibility for all income-qualifying residents regardless of citizenship.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 1422<\/a> would ensure that all immigrant adults age 19 and older could enroll in Medi-Cal. It would not reverse limits placed on dental benefits that last year\u2019s state budget included, nor would it eliminate the $30 monthly premium required of the same population starting in July 2027. The state budget last year did not cut benefits for children without legal status.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are no healthier as a community than the person least able to access care. When we accept a two-tier health care system, we borrow trouble,\u201d Durazo said Monday.<\/p>\n

Durazo argues that immigrants without legal status contribute billions in taxes<\/a> each year and many of them now cannot benefit from programs those dollars support. The state spends about $12 billion annually on immigrant health care.<\/p>\n

A shrinking budget, a growing fight<\/p>\n

Whether Newsom will sign such a measure is unclear but seemingly unlikely. Grappling with a deficit<\/a> for the fourth straight year \u2014 even as revenue grows \u2014 Newsom has already proposed cuts to other programs. Marissa Saldivar, a spokesperson for the governor, said his office would not comment on Durazo\u2019s legislation.<\/p>\n

His January budget proposal made few changes to the state\u2019s Medi-Cal program, which enrolls more than 14 million Californians, but it underscored the ongoing fiscal challenges. One major threat comes from President Donald Trump\u2019s federal tax reform package, which imposed new limits on the provider taxes that nearly every state uses to support their low-income health care programs. California\u2019s tax on health insurers is particularly large, generating about $7 billion annually for the general fund \u2014 a figure that the state finance department estimates will decrease to about $6 million<\/a> next year.<\/p>\n

Medi-Cal spending has nearly doubled to $200 billion during Newsom\u2019s two terms, adding to the state\u2019s structural deficit, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office<\/a>. That amount includes about $119 billion in federal dollars.<\/p>\n

Both Democrats and Republicans criticize Newsom\u2019s handling of health care for immigrants without legal status. Republicans blame Newsom\u2019s gradual expansion of Medi-Cal eligibility to immigrants for the program\u2019s growing costs<\/a>. Democrats are angry he partially reversed course, and some also take issue with his most recent budget proposal, which they say would needlessly extend some federal Medicaid cuts.<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Mia Bonta, a Democrat from Oakland, has introduced a bill that would bar the state from imposing federal work requirements<\/a> on enrollees whose health care is paid for solely with state funds, a group that includes immigrants without legal status. State officials estimate work requirements will cause roughly 2 million Californians to lose Medi-Cal largely due to administrative hurdles.<\/p>\n

The fight over health care spending has become one of the defining issues heading into this fall\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s largest health care labor union is pushing a billionaire\u2019s tax<\/a> to raise revenue for health care, a measure that has drawn opposition from Silicon Valley\u2019s wealthy elite and divided state Democrats<\/a>. Meanwhile, party leaders are also trying to unseat a number of vulnerable congressional Republicans, including Rep. David Valadao whose Central Valley district has the highest share of Medicaid recipients<\/a> in the country.<\/p>\n

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Kristen Hwang, CalMatters A UCSF-Fresno staff member checks the blood sugar of a farmworker during a check-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-514275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}