California Governor Gavin Newsom presents his revised state budget of 2025-2026 at a press conference in Sacramento, California, Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
Rich Pedroncelli / AP
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Rich Pedroncelli / AP
Democratic governors of states offering health insurance coverage for immigrants without legal status propose to find the coverage they have signed.
While states attack budget holes, efforts to limit access to programs become a common thread. The debates on reducing the coverage or eliminating it entirely when the congress considers a proposal which Reduce state Medicaid funds by 90% to 80% If they offer health insurance coverage to immigrants without appropriate authorization.
California
Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that He wants to freeze new registrations For unauthorized people aged 19 or over on Medi-Cal, the California insurance plan for low-income people and invoice a monthly bonus of $ 100 from January 2026. There would be exceptions for pregnant and emergency care.
“I don’t want to be in this position, but we are in this position,” said Newsom.
California expanded Medi-Cal to include all adults without legal status in 2024, and 1.6 million immigrants in California are currently receiving health insurance through the program. Under the proposal, people already registered at the end of the year would always be eligible for coverage, but other adults without legal status could not register.
The Republicans, who were against the expansion of the program from the start, criticized Newsom for continuing to spend on the cover as part of his last proposal.
“The governor has shown his priorities,” said the California assembly chief James Gallagher. “He wants to continue spending on health care for illegal immigrants. Billions and billions of dollars.”
The Democratic Governor is also confronted with a decline in state legislators in his own party, including members of the Latin Caucus in the Legislative Assembly, who say they will fight to maintain a form of coverage for those who have no legal status during the last month of budgetary negotiations.
“We can examine the options for budget cuts elsewhere,” said the Senator of the Democratic State, Lena Gonzalez, who presides over the Latin legislative Caucus. “We can be a little more aware of the way we do this without always having to look at our most bad communities served.”
Experts, legislators and Newsom emphasize that the state pays for coverage anyway. Those who have no health insurance often seek care in emergency rooms, so some legislators and defenders have initially prompted access so that people can have regular care, such as visits to the doctor and prescription drugs.
In the States where legislators have granted Medicaid access to undocumented immigrants, hospital administrators and religious groups, as well as immigrant defenders, have contributed to put pressure for the expansion of advantages.
Minnesota
This is true in Minnesota, where the proposal to go beyond state health insurance coverage for adults in the country without authorization emerged within the framework of a budgetary framework of compromise.
This led to immediate opposition from certain democrats and defenders of immigrants.
The Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, speaks during a town hall meeting at the Deyor Performing Arts Center on April 7, 2025, in Youngstown, Ohio.
Jeff Swensen / Getty Images from North America
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Jeff Swensen / Getty Images from North America
On Thursday, a group of Democratic legislators struck at the door of the room where Governor Tim Walz, a former vice-presidential candidate, developed his budgetary plan with legislative leaders.
They shouted: “You kill our communities” and said that they would vote against the provision to make adult immigrants without inadmissible legal status in Minnesotacare, the state Medicaid program, in 2026. Under the proposed budget, the children would always be eligible for coverage.
In 2023, the Democrats advanced a draft law extended public insurance coverage for the inhabitants of the country without legal status and Walz signed it. The program entered into force in January and more than 20,000 people without legal status registered, including around 3,000 children.
Walz and Democratic legislative leaders declared that they were opposed to the change but had to accept it within the framework of a budgetary framework. The state’s legislature is almost divided, with 101 democrats and 100 Republicans, they therefore said that they had to accept the proposal which was a priority for the legislators of the GOP.
“I’m not going to sugar factory how difficult it was,” Walz said while legislators beat the door outside his press conference. “We did not expect everyone to be happy with that; I think many of us have compromised.”
The president of the State House, Lisa Demuth, a Republican, agreed that it was a compromise that could help connect a expected budget deficit of $ 6 billion in the next four years.
“It is not a measure to be indifferent. It is a tax problem, and there are still opportunities,” said Demuth. “They can always join the private market, so it is not that health care is refused in any way,” she added. “We had to make difficult decisions in this room, and when we looked at the figures and we looked at in the future, it was a compromise that we were all able to come to a negotiation. No one comes out completely happy.”
Some democratic legislators who have fought for the program say they will oppose decline. Without their votes, the measure in a broader bill on the health budget could stall.
“Although we have protected children, which is a very noble thing to do, these children will lose moms, dads, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters,” said representative Cedrick Frazier, co-president of Minnesota, color and native caucus. “This is what we face here today.”
If Minnesota legislators cannot adopt a budget before July 1, they could face a closure of the government of the State.