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California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during the Center for American Progress Ideas Conference in Washington, D.C., on May 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jim Watson\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
At the end of 2023,\u00a0Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> framed it as a matter of principle when under his administration, California became the first state in the nation to pay for undocumented immigrants to use Medicaid.<\/p>\n \u201cIn California, we believe everyone deserves access to quality, affordable health care coverage \u2013 regardless of income or immigration status,\u201d Newsom said in a statement to ABC News<\/a> at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n People flocked to the system, with about 1.5 million undocumented Californians using the state\u2019s\u00a0Medi-Cal healthcare<\/a> by November 2025. But now Newsom and fellow Democrats in Sacramento are walking back on their promise to provide healthcare access to all.<\/p>\n Lawmakers have slashed the program in a series of cuts over the last year with more expected to come. In January<\/a>, the\u00a0state froze<\/a> any new undocumented adults from applying for the program.\u00a0Dental benefits for undocumented people are set to expire<\/a> in July. And Newsom\u2019s latest budget proposal, released in May, calls for increasing premiums<\/a> from a planned $30 to $50 for undocumented people starting in July next year.<\/p>\n Charging immigrants on Medi-Cal will \u201cabsolutely\u201d push people off healthcare, according to Rachel Linn Gish, the interim deputy director of Health Access California. She said the governor\u2019s cuts have returned California to a \u201ctwo-tiered health care system\u201d where undocumented immigrants will lose access to care.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Newsom [led] the way to provide access to all Californians regardless of immigration status. It was a key point of his governorship up until last year,\u201d Linn Gish said in an email. \u201cWe have since then been disappointed in the rollbacks to the program he once championed.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The cuts are being driven by multiple factors. The program is far more expensive for California taxpayers than it was originally expected to be, and at the same time Republicans in Congress and President Donald Trump have cut $1 trillion in federal healthcare spending<\/a> over 10 years. That\u2019s left\u00a0Newsom\u2019s administration scrambling to find ways to balance the budget, with undocumented immigrants shouldering some of the pain.<\/p>\n A banner saying clients at Families Together of Orange County in Tustin, Calif., could receive help renewing Medi-Cal coverage., Feb. 1, 2023.<\/p>\n MediaNews Group\/Getty Images<\/p>\n H.D. Palmer, the deputy director of external affairs for Newsom\u2019s Department of Finance, disputed that the administration\u2019s moves constitute \u201cbacktracking\u201d on the commitment to provide healthcare to undocumented people because current enrollees can stay on the system. Palmer said the cuts were directly related to Trump\u2019s H.R. 1 bill. The law, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, cut roughly $4 trillion in taxes<\/a> over 10 years while also cutting healthcare spending.<\/p>\n \u201cIn light of the substantial fiscal pressures that Washington has put on California and other states because of the provisions of HR 1, these measures reflect a way to address these new federally imposed costs while continuing to provide health care benefits to those who now receive them,\u201d Palmer said in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Linn Gish said that even undocumented people currently on the program are at risk of losing coverage permanently. Undocumented people have a 90-day grace period to reenroll after missing a premium, but if they miss that window they would permanently be blocked from full coverage,\u00a0according to the Department of Health Care Services<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In that way, California\u2019s healthcare cuts could in effect become part of\u00a0Trump\u2019s campaign to make life more uncomfortable<\/a> for undocumented people in order to encourage \u201cself-deportation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Nadereh Pourat, a healthcare policy researcher at UCLA, said undocumented people without healthcare can still use some county medical facilities.\u00a0But that could overload the facilities and extend wait times for entire communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stay informed, and entertained.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n She said the cuts are almost certainly because of Trump\u2019s H.R. 1 bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe important issue here is that these changes are because of the HR1 implementation. If it was not for this law, I don\u2019t [think] California would be trying to cut some people off,\u201d Pourat said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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