Starting from January 1, 2024, individuals residing in California without legal status will be eligible to receive health insurance funded by taxpayers. This groundbreaking policy makes California the first state in the country to implement such a measure.
Governor Newsom expressed his enthusiasm for the budget agreement in June of this year, which will provide health insurance, subsidized by taxpayers, to an estimated 4.4 million low-income illegal residents of California. This move is a significant step towards ensuring accessible healthcare for all individuals within the state.
Beginning next year, illegal aliens in California will be able to qualify for Medi-Cal, the state-funded version of the federal Medicaid program. Previously, only children without legal status were eligible for Medi-Cal, thanks to the efforts of former Governor Jerry Brown. However, Governor Newsom has expanded eligibility to include illegal aliens aged 50 and older, as well as those between the ages of 19 and 25. This expansion is expected to increase the number of Medi-Cal recipients by approximately 764,000 individuals.
Republican officials in California have expressed concerns about the strain this expansion will place on the already burdened Medi-Cal system. With 14.6 million Californians already relying on Medi-Cal, which accounts for more than a third of the state’s population, the addition of taxpayer-funded health insurance for illegal aliens is likely to exacerbate existing challenges in accessing healthcare services.
It is projected that over 1.2 million illegal aliens will eventually benefit from this subsidized health insurance program in California. This development coincides with a decrease in the state’s population, which fell below 39 million residents this year. The decline is primarily attributed to Californians leaving the state, with approximately 300,000 individuals relocating elsewhere in the previous year, making it the state with the highest number of out-migrants in the nation.
