New America Media

In a move health care advocates are calling a promising sign, the Senate Budget Subcommittee May 21, added $40 million to the state’s Medi-Cal budget to allow it to provide health care for all California residents regardless of their immigration status. The vote is an important step toward potential passage.

“It’s a modest investment, but a big deal,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, the statewide health consumer advocacy coalition. “It will make a big impact on our health care system and on our economy.”

Health for All Bill

Earlier this year, State Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, introduced the Health for All bill (Senate Bill, or SB 4) that will allow low-income immigrant families in California to get medical care through the state’s health insurance program for low-income people called Medi-Cal (California’s name for Medicaid).

The bill would also allow undocumented immigrants whose incomes are above the Medi-Cal eligibility limit to purchase insurance through Covered California, the state’s online marketplace.

Undocumented immigrants are currently barred from purchasing insurance on the marketplace.

If SB 4 is signed into law, the state would seek a federal waiver to allow undocumented immigrants to purchase insurance on the marketplace, but without providing them the federal subsidies now available to documented consumers.