Hernandez lives in Merced in California's Central Valley and works as an organizer with the California Immigrant Policy Center. 1, 2024, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. But those rules could expire later this year, making her one of the estimated 40,000 people who will temporarily lose their coverage before California's new program starts on Jan.
She hasn't lost her coverage yet because of emergency federal rules during the pandemic. She lost that coverage once she turned 19 because of her immigration status, but it was restored in 2020 when the state began covering low-income immigrants 26 and younger. She got health care through Medicaid when she was a child. A confluence of events, including the state's slow rollout of the expansion and the end of some federal pandemic policies, mean about 40,000 low-income immigrants will likely lose their health coverage for up to a year in 2023 before being eligible to get it back - illustrating the difficulty of navigating the government-run health insurance system that is supposed to make it easier for people to get coverage.īeatriz Hernandez came to the United States in 2007 as a 11-year-old. “I think many of us are very sympathetic to the immigrant community, but we really wish we had better control of who enters this nation and this state,” Coupal said.Ĭalifornia's expansion of Medicaid won't be easy. Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said offering free health care will make California “a magnet for those who are not legally authorized to enter the country.” In California, Republicans and conservative groups have opposed expanding health care to immigrants living in the country illegally. California and Illinois have expanded Medicaid to cover older adult immigrants. Eighteen states now provide prenatal care to people regardless of their immigration status, while the District of Columbia and five states - California, Illinois, New York, Oregon and Washington - cover all children from low-income families regardless of their immigration status. Immigrants have slowly been getting access to some health care programs. Pedestrian Fatally Struck by Vehicle in San Francisco's Marina District They are not eligible for most public benefit programs, even though many have jobs and pay taxes. People living in the country illegally made up about 7% of the population nationwide in 2020, or about 22.1 million people, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care nonprofit. “In California we recognize (that) everybody benefits when everyone is covered.” “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. But that will change once this budget is fully implemented, as adults living in the country illegally make up one of the largest groups of people without insurance in the state. Get the NBC Bay Area app for iOS or Android and pick your alerts.Ībout 92% of of Californians currently have some form of health insurance, putting the state in the middle of the pack nationally. Stay informed about local news and weather. Now, California wants to be the first to do that for everyone. Some states, including California, have used their own tax dollars to cover a portion of health care expenses for some low-income immigrants. But the federal government won't pay for people who are living in the country illegally. Nationwide, federal and state governments join together to give free health care to low-income adults and children through Medicaid. It’s a long-sought victory for health care and immigration activists, who have been asking for the change for more than a decade. Gavin Newsom signed a $307.9 billion operating budget that pledges to make all low-income adults eligible for the state's Medicaid program by 2024 regardless of their immigration status. California on Thursday became the first state to guarantee free health care for all low-income immigrants living in the country illegally, a move that will provide coverage for an additional 764,000 people at an eventual cost of about $2.7 billion a year.
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