California Democrats Agree to Taxpayer-Funded Healthcare Plan for Illegal Aliens
Dems to grant full health benefits for low-income illegal immigrants in swipe at Trump
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California Democrats have agreed to grant full healthcare benefits to low-income illegal immigrants currently living in the state.
Californian taxpayers are all set to become the first in the country to foot the bill for tens of thousands of foreign nationals to receive full health benefits.
The stance is widely regarded as another move to distance the state from President Trump’s administration.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has come to an agreement with Democrats in the state legislature, low-income adults aged between 19 and 25 living in California illegally would be eligible for California’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal.
The deal emerged as part of a broader $213 billion budget.
The plan would take effect in January 2020, the Sacramento Bee reported.
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According to Fox News, state officials have estimated the benefits would be available to about 90,000 low-income illegal immigrants at a cost of $98 million per year.
“While it’s not all we sought, it will provide a real tangible difference for people, especially for those around and below poverty and for middle-income families who don’t get any help under the federal law,” Anthony Wright, executive director of the advocacy group Health Access, said.
Indeed, a family of four earning as much as six times the federal poverty level -- or more than $150,000 a year -- would be eligible to get about $100 a month from the government to help pay their monthly health insurance premiums.
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A #NewYork lawyer has been found guilty of large-scale #asylum fraud after she was caught running a scheme to help immigrants who would normally be denied entry to the US, win asylum in the country.
— Neon Nettle (@NeonNettle) November 23, 2018
READ MORE: https://t.co/7R7awKLY07#immigration
To pay for part of it, the state agreed to start taxing people who don’t have health insurance.
It’s a revival of the individual-mandate penalty that had been on the books nationwide under former President Barack Obama’s health-care law.
The mandate was later eliminated by Republicans in Congress as part of the 2017 overhaul to the tax code.
The budget agreement still must be approved by the full state legislature; a vote is expected this week.
State law requires lawmakers to enact a budget by midnight on June 15.
If they don’t, lawmakers would lose their pay.
