The bill authorizes emergency funds to keep California’s Medicaid program afloat as costs surge and criticism mounts over illegal immigrant coverage.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed emergency legislation that will close a $2.8 billion shortfall in the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, ensuring continued health care coverage through June for approximately 15 million low-income residents, including hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.
Newsom signed Assembly Bill 100 into law on April 14, according to a statement from his office. The measure is part of a broader response to an estimated $6.2 billion budget gap in Medi-Cal, the state’s sprawling public health care program.
The shortfall followed California’s expansion of full-scope Medi-Cal benefits to all income-eligible adults in 2024, regardless of immigration status—a move hailed by progressives and criticized by conservatives.
The Medi-Cal expansion—implemented in January 2024 under a 2022 law—made California the first state in the nation to offer free, comprehensive health care to all low-income adults regardless of immigration status. The state initially projected that the policy would cost $2.7 billion annually and cover about 764,000 residents without lawful immigration status. Actual program costs have exceeded expectations, contributing to California’s budget crisis, according to state officials.
California state Rep. Carl DeMaio, a Republican, has called for an audit of Medi-Cal spending, saying that California cannot afford to provide free health care to illegal immigrants.
“This puts the health coverage for poor people, children, the neediest among us, at risk,” DiMaio told reporters, according to a video that he shared on social media. “Why? Because we’ve given away the store to noncitizens. We’ve given illegal immigrants free health care at taxpayers’ expense.”
California’s Medi-Cal expansion for illegal immigrants costs about $8.4 billion from the state general fund annually, according to an exchange between DeMaio and a California Department of Finance official during a recent budget hearing.
Newsom’s administration has denied claims that the expansion alone caused the shortfall, pointing to a combination of factors, including rising drug costs and larger enrollment by older people. In March, the state Department of Finance approved a $3.44 billion emergency loan from the general fund to temporarily cover Medi-Cal’s cost overruns. The $2.8 billion appropriation approved under AB 100 supplements the loan and unlocks federal matching funds to keep the program solvent through June.
By Tom Ozimek
