California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a break from the registration of more with low -income immigrants without legal status for health care benefits funded by the State in 2026, the State being confronted with economic uncertainty.
Newsom described its state spending plan for nearly $ 332 billion, revealing that California is confronted with a budgetary deficit of $ 12 billion on Wednesday.
“California is in fact in fact,” said Newsom. “We have a president who was reckless in terms of assault on these growth engines.”
The Democratic Governor noted that the frost does not mean that California is moving away from its support for immigrants.
“No state has made only the state of California, no state will continue to do more than the state of California in the long term. And that is a point of pride,” said Newsom.
The decision, whose details were revealed before the presentation of the budget revision on Wednesdayis driven by a higher price than expected on the program and economic uncertainty of federal pricing policies, said Newsom. He also occurs while Newsom faces his last years in the Governor’s office, speculations continuing to rise his future political perspectives.
California’s push to provide free health care advantages to all low -income adults, regardless of their immigration status, was announced at the end of 2023. Newsom presented the expected expansion as “a transformative step towards strengthening the health system for all Californians”.
However, the cost exceeded the initial estimate of $ 6.4 billion in the state of more than $ 2 billion.
Always, Until the end of March of this yearNewsom suggested to journalists that he did not plan to illegally retreat health benefits for low -income people living in the country – even with California with a deficit of $ 6.2 billion Medicaid. He has also repeatedly defended the expansion, saying that it saves money in the long -term state. The program is funded by the State and does not use federal dollars.
As part of the Newsom plan, low-income adults without legal status will no longer be eligible for Medica-Cal’s request, the state Medicaid program, from 2026. Those who are already registered will not be launched from their plans due to the freezing of inscriptions and changes will not have an impact on children. Newsom’s office did not say how long the frost lasts.
From 2027, adults with “unsatisfactory immigration status” on Medi-Cal, including those without legal status and those who have legal status but who are not eligible for Medicaid funded by the federal government, will also have to pay a monthly bonus of $ 100. The Governor’s office said that this was in accordance with the average cost paid by those who are on health plans subsidized on the California market. There is no premium for most people currently on Medi-Cal.
“We think people should have a skin in the game when it comes to contributions,” said Newsom.
In total, the Newsom office estimated that changes will save $ 5.4 billion by 2028-2029.
The expansion of Medi-Cal, combined with other factors such as the increase in pharmacy costs and larger registrations for the elderly, forced California to borrow and authorize new funding to connect the hole of several billion dollars earlier this year. California provides free health care to more than a third of its 39 million people.
The proposals become before the planned presentation of Newsom on the updated budget. The recovery of Los Angeles forest fires, the evolution of federal tariff policies and the costly expansion of health care put pressure on the massive California state budget. The legislators expect a deficit of several billion dollars this year, and more deficits are projected for several years to come.
Newsom blamed President Donald Trump’s pricing policies for deficits, saying that policies have cost the State $ 16 billion in tax revenue. California is also preparing for major budgetary tubes if the Republicans at Congress are following a plan to reduce billions of dollars to Medicaid and penalize states for having provided health care to immigrants without legal status.
Newsom is now opening budgetary negotiations with legislators and we do not know how the Democrats who control the Legislative Assembly will react to its plan to freeze new Medi-Cal inscriptions to certain immigrants. A final budget proposal must be signed by June. California’s budget is by far the most important among states.
“This will be a very difficult budget,” said the announcement of the announcement of the assembly of Jesse Gabriel, who chairs the budget committee. “We are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
The budgetary proposals presented this week will rely on some of the impacts of federal policies, but many unknowns remain.
The Governor has already declared that he was planning to retreat on reference expenses this year. Analysts and economists also warn that California will be faced with larger deficits in tens of billions of dollars in the coming years due to economic slowness and market volatility caused by the tariff war.
The Newsom budget proposed for the first time in January included few new expenses. But it allows the State to fully implement the country’s first kindergarten program for the country and increase the state’s film and television tax credit to $ 750 million per year to bring Hollywood jobs that went to New York and Georgia. He recently called Trump to adopt a film credit of $ 7.5 billion at the federal level.
Last year, Newsom and the Legislative Assembly agreed to plunge into the state rainfall fund, spending on oblique bar – including a drop of almost 10% for almost all state departments – and temporarily increases taxes on certain companies to close approximately $ 46.8 billion budget deficit.