Sacramento – The 2025-26 reviewed budget proposal by Governor Gavin Newsom turns on his signature policy to provide free medical care coverage to all low-income undocumented immigrants as the costs exceed expectations and the State anticipates challenging economic times ahead.
The Newsom Office said that the governor’s expenses plan, which will be published on Wednesday morning on Wednesday night, requires that all undocumented adults pay monthly premiums of $ 100 to receive Medi-Cal coverage and to block all requests to the program as or January 1.
Participation in costs will reduce the financial burden of the State and could reduce the total number of people registered in the health program if some immigrants cannot pay the new premiums. Freezing registration can prevent the price of the program from continuing with balloons after more people enroll in the coverage of what the planned state.
The governor’s office said the changes will save $ 5.4 billion combined until 2028-29, but did not detail the cost savings in the next fiscal year that begins on July 1.
Newsom is expected on Wednesday to project a deficit for California in the fiscal year ahead, which includes medi-at higher than expected and more significant deficit estimates in the following years. In the current budget year, the governor and the legislators approved an allocation of $ 2.8 billion and took a separate loan of $ 3.4 billion only to pay additional expenses for Medi-Cal until June.
The growing costs have caused criticisms of Republicans and have added pressure on Democrats to consider climbing back cover for immigrants. A recent survey found strong support among California voters for offering free medical attention to undocumented children. Approximately half of the voters supported to provide medical care to eligible immigrants of 50 years or more, and a plurality, 49%, favored providing coverage to adults between the ages of 18 and 49.
Medi-Cal, the California branch of the Federal Medicaid program, provides medical care coverage to eligible low-income residents. After this year’s Republican Congress approved a budget plan that includes billions of dollars in expenses reductions, fears also persist that cuts to federal medical funds can be advanced.
California became the first state of the nation to sacrifice medical care to all income immigrants a year after Newsom and the legislature led by the expansion were approved.
Governor Jerry Brown, Democrat, signed a bill in 2015 that sacrificed the coverage of Medi-Cal to all children under 19.
Newsom increased the Medi-Cal Coverage Group to include all income IDLE immigrants in California under an expansion of several years by age categories that began in 2020 and concluded in 2024.
The new budget deficit of California occurs in addition to $ 27.3 billion in financial remedies, including $ 16.1 billion in cuts and a withdrawal of $ 7.1 billion from the bottom of the rainy day of the State, that the legislators and the governor are no longer there.
The deficit marks the third consecutive year that Newsom and legislators have forced to reduce spending after dedicating more to programs than the State that has achieved to spend. The bad projections, the high price of the promises of democratic policy and the reluctance to make long -term hunger cuts have joined the deficit at a time when the governor regularly promotes the place in California as the fourth largest economy in the world.
On Tuesday afternoon, Newsom’s office said the tariff policies of President Trump have also harmed the Financial position of California and projected that the State will lose the income of $ 16 billion from January 2025 to June and the levies in the imported market.
