Written by by Katy Grimes at californiaglobe.com
As the Globe recently reported, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s final expansion of full-scope Medi-Cal went into effect Monday, January 1, 2024, making more than 700,000 illegal immigrants residents between ages 26 and 49 eligible for full health care coverage – at a very precarious time with his $68 billion budget deficit.
If Gavin Newsom and the state’s Democrats – who surely flunked basic math – are trying to bankrupt the state, they are going about it correctly. This latest expansion of Medi-Cal will cost $2.6 billion annually on top of the $330 billion budget.
And notably, California is the only state in the country to fund health care for illegal immigrants.
Wednesday, the Globe learned that a bill was introduced by Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Riverside) to end all taxpayer funding for health care for illegal immigrants – those in the state illegally.
However, few other Republicans were willing to sign on to his bill as co-authors. The Globe contacted several Republican Assembly offices to ask if the member would co-author.
Thus far, we heard Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez will co-author the bill. And we spoke to Assemblyman Joe Patterson (R-Rocklin), who said:
When California is facing a multi-billion deficit that will likely result in cuts to schools and other vital programs, we absolutely should not be creating new programs to fund Medi-Cal for people who came here illegally. As a member of the budget committee, I will be fighting to eliminate this new program. I look forward to Assemblyman Essayli drafting the statutory language for the bill for our consideration.