SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California became the first state Thursday to guarantee free health care to all low-income immigrants living in the country illegally, a move that will provide coverage for an additional 764,000 people and ultimately cost about $2.7 billion annually. Dollar.
governor. Gavin Newsom signed a $307.9 billion operating budget that promises to make all low-income adults eligible for the state's Medicaid program by 2024, regardless of immigration status. It's a long-sought victory for health care and immigration activists who have been demanding changes for more than a decade.
National, federal and state governments have joined together to provide free health care to low-income adults and children through Medicaid. But the federal government won't pay for people living in the country illegally. Some states, including California, already use their own taxes to pay for some of the health care costs for some low-income immigrants.
Now, California wants to be the first to do this for everyone.
About 92% of Californians currently have some form of health insurance, placing the state in the middle of the pack nationally. But that will change once this budget is fully implemented, as adults living in the country illegally make up one of the largest uninsured groups in the state.
“This will represent the largest expansion of coverage nationwide since the Affordable Care Act began in 2014,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a statewide consumer health care advocacy group. “In California, we recognize that When everyone is covered, everyone benefits.”
People living in the country illegally accounted for about 7% of the country’s population in 2020, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care nonprofit. 22.1 million people. They are ineligible for most public benefit programs, even though many work and pay taxes.
Immigration has been slowly gaining access to some health care plans. Now, 18 states offer prenatal care to people regardless of their immigration status, along with the District of Columbia and five states — California, Illinois, New York, Oregon and Washington. — Covers all children from low-income families, regardless of immigration status. California and Illinois expanded Medicaid to cover older immigrants.
In California, Republicans and conservative groups oppose expanding health care to immigrants living in the country illegally. Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said providing free health care would make California "a magnet for those who enter the country without legal authorization." "I think a lot of us have a lot of sympathy for the immigrant community, but we really wish we had more control over who comes into this country and into this state," Coupal said.
Expanding Medicaid in California won't be easy. A confluence of events, including the state's slow rollout of expansion and the end of some federal pandemic policies, means about 40,000 low-income immigrants could lose their health coverage for up to a year in 2023 before becoming eligible to resume it Health Insurance - This illustrates the difficulty of navigating the government-run system of health insurance that is supposed to make it easier for people to get insurance.
Beatrice Hernandez came to the United States in 2007 at the age of 11. She received health care through Medicaid as a child. She lost coverage the year she turned 19 because of her immigration status, but it was restored in 2020 when the state began covering low-income immigrants 26 and younger.
Hernandez turned 26 in February. She hasn’t lost her insurance due to emergency federal regulations during the pandemic. But those rules could expire later this year, making her one of an estimated 40,000 people in California who will temporarily lose coverage before the new program begins on Jan. 1, 2024, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.
Hernandez lives in Merced, California's Central Valley, and works as an organizer at the California Immigration Policy Center.She said her mother, who has never had health insurance since moving to the United States, would benefit most from the expansion.
But for Hernandez, she worries that gaps in coverage will prevent her from getting medication to treat depression. In the meantime, she's scheduling as many appointments as possible this year, including at the dentist, optometrist and dermatologist, before she loses her insurance. "It's great that California is taking this step to set an example for other states," said
Hernandez, who said she did not have a work permit or other permission to live in the United States. "I do believe we can do better by making sure that people like me and hundreds, thousands of others, don't drop out of health care just because they turn 26."
California Medicaid Previous expansions of the system took six months to a year to implement. But the Newsom administration said it would take a year and a half to complete the expansion because it is much larger than previous ones.
Health care advocates say coverage gaps are wide for low-income immigrants living in the country illegally because they have no other options. Citizens who lose Medicaid coverage can purchase insurance from California covered by state health insurance exchanges and may qualify for significant discounts.
"But for these populations, that's it. (Medicaid) is the only public program available to them," said Sarah Dar, director of health and public welfare policy at the California Immigration Policy Center.
Democrats in the state Legislature say they are working with The Newsom administration is working together to speed up the process.
"We're doing everything we can. We're talking to the administration, talking to the leadership of the (California) Department of Health to make sure that we do this as quickly as possible and that no one loses it," the Democratic senator said. Maria Elena Durazo. "There's no point losing them and then getting them back."
