California will offer health insurance to all undocumented immigrants

California will become the first state to offer all undocumented immigrants, regardless of age, state-subsidized health insurance. It’s expected to take effect in 2024 and it will make California the first state to achieve universal access to health coverage.

The historic move was part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) 2022-23 state budget allocation, which includes expanding the state’s Medi-Cal program. That provides state-funded health insurance to eligible residents and will now cover an additional 700,000 undocumented residents ages 26-49 beginning no later than Jan. 1, 2024.

Medi-Cal already offers coverage to undocumented immigrants if they are younger than 26, over the age of 50 or a recipient of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The expansion of Medi-Cal is expected to lead to the largest drop in the rate of uninsured Californians in a decade. Undocumented Californians make up the largest group of the state’s uninsured, with the University of California Berkley’s Labor Center projecting nearly 1.3 million individuals under the age of 65 are uninsured in 2022 alone.

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State Sen. María Elena Durazo (D) hailed the expansion of Medi-Cal as a budget victory and said in a statement that the state is “one step closer to ending the out... (Read more)

Tweets mentioned:

https://twitter.com/SenMariaEDurazo/status/1541488732573863936

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