By Kristen Hwang And Ana B. IbarraCalm
!["Benefits]("https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/121923_MediCal-Expansion_LJ_CM_07.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1")
This story was initially published by Calm. Register For their newsletters.
One year after granted Medi-Cal access to low-income immigrants without legal status, Governor Gavin Newsom proposes to freeze new beneficiaries and invoice bonuses in a decision which should allow the State to save more than $ 5 billion.
As part of the newsom’s proposal announced today, Medi -Cal – The State Health Insurance Program for low -income and disabled people – from 2026 would no longer accept new registrants of 19 and over who have no permanent legal status.
The 1.6 million immigrants already registered would not lose their medical coverage, and children could still register. All undocumented Californians would always be covered for medical care and emergency pregnancy – so -called “limited” coverage which is paid with federal dollars. But those who do not register before January 2026 are discovered for other medical costs, such as prescription drugs and visits to the doctor.
Before the changes can come into force, the California legislative assembly should approve them in the state budget. Democratic legislators have so far died largely to make major cuts to the medical coverage of immigrants.
Senator of the State Scott Wiener, Democrat of San Francisco and chairman of the Senate budget committee, said at lunch last month that despite fiscal uncertainty, the Senate Democrats wanted to cover health care for immigrants in California.
“These are working people, paying taxes. They should have access to health care,” said Wiener.
But Senator Roger Niello, a Republican from Roseville and vice-president of the Senate budget committee, said that newspaper’s proposed cuts confirm what the Republicans have criticized for the expansion from the start: Medi-Cal for immigrants is too expensive to be sustainable.
“We have made spending in something we cannot afford,” said Niello. “It started at times when the budget was much more rinsed, then increased in times when the budget was unreasonably in excess.”
Newsom also proposed that adults with an “unsatisfactory immigration status” should pay a monthly bonus of $ 100 from 2027. They are people whose immigration status makes them inadmissible to federal medicaid, including those with legal status. The $ 100 bonus is lower than the average subsidized premium paid under covered in California, according to the Governor’s office.
Together, these measures saved $ 5.4 billion in state by 2028-2029, said the Newsom office, helping to approach the state deficit. Newsom estimated that the State tax revenues will decrease $ 16 billion This year, largely due to President Donald Trump’s prices.
Newsom’s office said the deficit required “difficult decisions”, but that the governor was determined to protect immigrants.
“We do not delete or do not make those registered in our Medi-Cal system back. We cap it,” said Newsom today. “No state has only made the state of California. No state will continue to do more than California. ”
The decision is a stroke of suffocation for Newsom, which presented itself to the post of governor of the promise of universal health care. California was the second state after Oregon to offer full health insurance to all immigrants without legal status.
“These cuts are reckless and unreasonable. This is a betrayal of the governor’s commitment to California immigrants and an abandonment of his inheritance, which reported California so close to universal health care,” said Amanda McAlister-Wallner, executive director of access to health in California, in a press release.
“We have made spending on something that we cannot afford. It started at times when the budget was much more at the expense, then increased at the time when the budget was unreasonably in excess.”
State state. Roger Niello
The Newsom office blamed the large-scale prices imposed by the Trump administration to weaken state-expected income, but the Medi-Cal program already knew cost problems related to increasing registration and the increase in prescription medication costs.
In March, the administration reported a $ 6.2 billion in deficit in its medi-calt budgetAnd had to appropriate additional funds to pay the service providers until the end of June.
The Ministry of Health Services, which oversees Medi-Cal, cited a certain number of reasons to exceed its budget, including that it spent about $ 2.7 billion more than expected on people without legal status.
The state spends about $ 8.5 billion a year compared to the general fund to cover immigrants who are in the country without legal authorization, according to the Newsom administration estimates.
Newsom’s call to limit registration comes while Congress offers major spending discounts on the Federal Medicaid program. (Medi-Cal is the name of California for Medicaid.)
A proposal aims to penalize the states covering unauthorized immigrants. This penalty would come in the form of federal funding reduced for the expansion population of the affordable care law – of largely valid adults without children. If it is promulgated, this penalty could cost California about $ 3.2 billion per year of federal funding, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priories.
Calmatters’ journalist, Yue Stella Yu, contributed to this story.
This story was corrected on May 14 to eliminate inaccuracy on the size of the state deficit.
This article was Originally published on Calmatters and was republished under the Assignment of creative-noderivatives-noderivatives license.