California Taxpayers Forced to Pay $1.3Bn to Enroll More Illegals in Medicaid
The coverage is set to come into effect in 2022
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California taxpayers are facing paying more cripling taxes to enroll more illegal immigrants in Medicaid, according to reports.
As the plans are part of a recently approved state budget, younger illegal immigrants are already enrolled.
The Democrat proposed plan guarantees that low-income illegal immigrants who are older than 50 receive health insurance.
The coverage is set to come into effect in 2022 at the cost of $1.3 billion per year, footed by California taxpayers.
The move follows a $213 billion taxpayer-funded plan in 2019, which allowed low-income illegal immigrants to enroll in Medicaid.
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Adding 90,000 people to Medicaid would cost taxpayers $98 million per year, Democrats estimated.
The next step would be adding illegal immigrants older than age 50, which was included in the state's two-year budget proposal.
Last year, President Donald Trump blasted the policy:
“If you look at what they’re doing in California, how they’re treating people, they don’t treat their people as well as they treat illegal immigrants."
"At what point does it stop? It’s crazy what they’re doing. It’s crazy."And it’s mean, and it’s very unfair to our citizens.”
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Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign it this week.
Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen blasted the plan:
"Individuals who are illegally in California now will receive [health] benefits equal to a citizen of California."
"All they had to do is just simply be here, and whether they were of legal status or not makes no difference," he said.
"I would argue that is at the expense of Californians who are legally here and have been here their whole life."
"Also, it inflates the budget considerably, and it becomes a part of the base budget, meaning the ongoing budget into the future. Every year, we have to build into the base expenditure, the extension of the people served."
But despite Democrats fighting for illegal newcomers, almost 3.2 million Californians remain uninsured, which accounts for 9.5% of the state's population, data from the University of California–Berkeley Labor Center revealed.
Newsom's spokesperson said of the measure:
"Governor Newsom has made it clear that he supports health care for all regardless of immigration status and, since taking office, has advanced this goal while maintaining fiscal responsibility for future years."
"Building on the state's expansion of Medi-Cal coverage to all Californians up to age 26 and additional Covered California premium assistance to middle-income individuals, the governor in May proposed tackling the long-standing structural barriers in health care for low-income older undocumented persons as the state makes progress toward universal coverage."
