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Yesterday, California became the first state to guarantee free health care for all low-income immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, who live in the country illegally. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the $307.9 billion operating budget that aims to make all low-income adults eligible for the state's Medicaid program by 2024 and it'll provide coverage for an additional 764,000 people.
"This will represent the biggest expansion of coverage in the nation since the start of the Affordable Care Act in 2014," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a statewide consumer health care advocacy group. "In California we recognize (that) everybody benefits when everyone is covered."
In 2020, those living in the country illegally made up about 7% of the population nationwide and most are not eligible for a lot of public benefit programs even though they have jobs and pay taxes. The reason why getting the coverage will take long is because it's a much larger expansion than previous ones but the Democrats in the state Legislature are working with the Newsom administration to speed up the process. Click here for more.