CA borrows $3.4B to cover Medi-Cal budget gap

BY LYNN LA
CalMatters – What-Matters

To cover a budget gap in Medi-Cal — which provides health insurance for roughly 15 million disabled and low-income Californians — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is borrowing $3.4 billion from the state’s general fund.

Republican legislators are attributing the Medi-Cal budget shortfall to the state’s expansion of the program over the years to immigrants regardless of their legal status, which began under Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016 when undocumented children were eligible to enroll in Medi-Cal.

About 1.6 million undocumented immigrants are enrolled in Medi-Cal, and expanding Medi-Cal to cover them costs around $8.5 billion a year.

Senate GOP Leader Brian Jones of San Diego: “Democrats and the governor are … prioritizing people that have come into our country illegally over people who immigrated here legally, people that are citizens.”

source: CalMatters – WhatMatters