Gop blames immigrant health care with increasing cost for Medi-Cal

The California Health Program, which covers nearly 15 million people, is worth more money than the forecasted governor Gavin Newsom, creating a New budgetary problem In a slim year.

The administration is now $ 3.4 billion in the country’s common fund to cover the unexpected increase in costs. It is unclear when the administration plans to recover the money.

The administration acknowledges that more people are enrolled in the program than the state is expected, and that the state spends more than plans to expand the expansion of immigrants without law.

Approximately 1.6 million immigrants without legal status are recorded in MedicalL, according to state data. The program is a rescue line for people who have traditionally not had access to health insurance and California is one of six states that offer coverage of adult immigrants Whether they are in the country legal.

Senate minority leader Brian Jones said Newsom has diverted and is insufficient in healthcare at a time when all Californians are struggling to afford the cost of living in the country.

“Democrats and governor choose priorities and prioritize the people who have entered our country illegally at the people who immigrate here legitimately, people who are citizens,” Jones said.

State’s Medi-Cal Expansion for Undousmated Immigrants costs about $ 8.5 billion from the State General Fund annually according to Recent budget hearingS

“If we did not spend eight and a half billion dollars on illegal immigrants, we would not need to borrow $ 3.4 billion to cover the difference,” Jones said.

HD Palmer, a spokesman for the State Financing Department, has admitted that the increase in costs is partially due to the costs with higher than the estimated costs associated with higher enrollment numbers for the undocumented population in California.

In January, thehe Ministry of HealthWho runs Medi-Cal, the calculated California spends $ 2.7 billion on what is budget because of the cost of covering care and recipes for newly arranged immigrants.

But immigrants are not the only population that uses Medi-Cal more than the state expected.

The Medi-Cal population in California is generally ballooning during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the Federal Government temporarily terminated income admissibility checks to retain people insured during the national emergency. Prior to the pandemic, about 13 million people used Medi-Cal. This number reached a peak of 15.6 million in 2023 when Eligibility checks resumedS 14.9 million people are enrolled today as per State dataS

The legislative analyzer service also noted 40% growth in the last four years In the number of elderly people recorded in Medi-Cal. While the elderly account for only about 10% of the program participants, they represent a large part of the cost of the program, since the benefits of long-term care are among the most expensive.

Medi-Cal spends about $ 15,000 a year on a senior. This is compared to $ 8,000 a year, which the program spends on average on other participants.

The Newsom Office said these problems were neither new nor unique to California. Medi-Cal is the Medicaid version in California, the federal country that provides health coverage throughout the country of low-income households.

“The increasing cost of Medicaid is a national challenge affecting both the Reds and Blue countries,” says Elana Ross, a spokesman for the governor’s office.

Democrats promise to protect health care for immigrants

Senator Roger Nilo, a longtime critic of the closed -door budgeting process, which is usually smeared between democratic leaders and governor, admitted that other factors such as higher recording and high drug costs could contribute to high costs. He said Republicans worried about increasing the cost of health care immigrants.

The Roseville Republic criticizes the lack of transparency from the Newsom Financial Department.

“The completely opaque nature of the request, which says nothing about it, is completely inappropriate,” Nilo said.

Democratic MPs said they needed more information about what exactly was behind the unexpected increases in costs, but withdrawn from the idea that the state would have to return the coverage for its undocumented population.

“Immigrant workers and families who pay billions of taxes deserve access to care, and I am proud to protect California’s progress by expanding Medi-Cal,” said Assembly chairman Robert Rivas. “There is a difficult choice and the Democrats of the Assembly will carefully consider any proposal from the manager. But let’s be clear: we will not turn over and leave our immigrants behind us. “

Immigrants deprived of permanent status contribute approximately $ 8.5 billion in state and local taxes per yearAccording to an analysis by the California Center for Budget and Policy, a non -profit research group. This is approximately the same amount that costs the state to give them Medi-Cal.

For the first time, government deputies allowed the undocumented children to enroll in Medi-Cal in 2016 with governor Jerry Brown. Since then, Newsom approved the addition of young adults under the age of 25 in 2020 and adults and adults in 2022. Adults 26-49 years old are the last group added in 2024. During these years even, even, even Some Republican legislators have supported the cover of this population.

“Republicans need to look at a better and keen look at the timeline associated with these extensions,” said Assembly member Mia Bonta, a Democrat from Oakland, who heads the Health Committee. “For them, just try to play the game of guilt and put all this at the feet of the California values ​​to ensure that we have a universal health cover for everyone, with this particular age group is just favorable.”

Billions more in potential cuts on Medicaid

The Assembly member of Assembly Addis, who chairs a budget subcommittee on healthcare, said he would carefully question Newsom’s employees about the increase in costs in the upcoming hearing.

“We really need to understand the details of what the Ministry of Finance says, what the executive sees and how they calculate this information,” says Addis, Democrat from San Louis Obyspo.

Addis stressed that the biggest threat to the Medi-Cal currently comes from the federal government.

Republicans from home recently voted to progress a proposal that could lead to cuts of $ 880 billion for a group of programsTo a large extent Medicaid over the next 10 years. The California Budget and Policy Center estimated that the proposals currently playing in the congress could turn into annual losses of $ 10 billion to $ 20 billion a year for the state.

“The reason why it is so important to fight against federal Medicaid levels is that there is no easy or painless solution to fill this budget hole,” said Amanda McAlister-Waller, temporarily executing Health Access California.

Health Access California, along with the California Immigrant Policy Center, headed the campaign nearly a decade ago to guarantee all immigrants to the state.

Mcallister-Wallner said it was unfair and unreasonable to determine a deficiency of a state budget for the expansion of immigrants. During the same period the state has added benefits such as Doula services and family therapyAnd it invests strongly in the reform of the system through a multi -billion -dollar initiative called Calaim.

“These changes we made at Medi-Cal have made the program stronger (s) made the country healthier,” said McAlighter-Woller.

CalMatters reporter Alexei Kosef has contributed to this story.