Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP / Getty Images
By: EFE
Friday, November 15
California approves health coverage for undocumented persons aged 50 and over
California will give from 2022 access to the public health program Medi-Cal for the undocumented of 27 years and older and low-income , highlighted on Tuesday Governor Gavin Newsom when signing the expansion of health coverage included in the budget.
Newsom signed on Tuesday Bill 133 Assembly , which expands Medi-Cal coverage at an event in Fresno, California’s Central Valley.
“We have not finished that work, but we are making a great investment here,” emphasized the democrat.
HISTORIC: @ CAgovernor signing # AB 133 ! California becomes first state to remove exclusions to Medi-Cal for older adults, young adults, and children regardless of immigration status. We are closer than ever to # Health4All ! https://t.co/ifNnXsQTxn pic.twitter.com/0RehOlTNA6
– Health Access CA (@healthaccess) July 27, 2021
California thus becomes the first state in the country to grant a public health program to undocumented adults of 50 years or more. The state already provides this assistance to minors and young adults without legal status.
The measure will cost $ 1, 300 millions of dollars to the state coffers.
Medi-Cal is California’s version of the federal program and state Medicaid for people with low i income. In May 2017, the state began offering full Medi-Cal coverage to non-immigrant children and youth papers up to 24 years , financed with state funds. Almost 129, 01 enrolled in the program in March of 2019, according to available data.
When they discussed the budget of 2019 legislators voted to use plus state funding to expand the program to all income eligible adults between 19 Y 25 years, making California the first state to offer full Medicaid coverage for undocumented adult immigrants.
At the beginning of last year, efforts focused on expand the public health program to the undocumented of 65 years or more, but the arrival The coronavirus pandemic forced a halt to efforts.
However, the same health emergency revealed that the undocumented and low-income minorities are “more vulnerable and more susceptible to disease” than other communities, said Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, who concluded that “everyone has the right to be healthy.”
The law was passed amid the Newsom government’s efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus and delta variant, that threaten the economic reopening of the state.