Newsom ensures illegal aliens who have aged out of eligibility see no disruption in health care coverage

California covers the health care costs of illegal aliens under the age of 25 and has done so since 2019. Last month, California became the first state to guarantee free health care to all low-income adult illegal aliens, reportedly conferring coverage to an additional 764,000 people and costing the state $2.7 billion more. This pledge to criminal non-citizens was part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's $308 billion operating budget approved by California lawmakers on June 29.

Approximately 40,000 illegal aliens have or will age out of their present Medicaid coverage, meaning they could lose their benefits until 2024, when the new law concerning adult coverage goes into effect. They will, however, see no disruption in their benefits.

The Newsom administration's Department of Health Care Services announced on Monday that those 40,000 persons will get to keep their taxpayer-funded coverage through the end of 2023, even though they are now or soon will be older than 25 and no longer eligible.

Jose Torres Casillas, policy and legislative advocate for the lobby group Health Access California, said, "California is again leading the way in making our health care system work better for all communities, regardless of income, age or immigration status."

Concerning the provision of health care to illegal aliens in general, Casillas claimed: "By removing immigration status as an eligibility barrier to Medi-Cal, California is building a more universal, efficient, and equitable health care system. ... Health care is a human right, and our health system is stronger when everyone is included."

As of summer 2021, California's Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, covered about 14 million people.

Illegal aliens under 25 qualify for Medi-Cal if their income is less than $18,754. A household of three is eligible if the shared income is $31,781 or under. As of September 2021, 96,193 young adult illegal aliens were covered under the program.

According to a 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation estimate, there are over 22.1 million illegal aliens living in the United States. In the years since that estimate was made, 1.7 million illegal immigrants tried to enter the U.S. in 2021, and 1.9 million have been encountered at the southern border so far in 2022.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform's most recent fiscal cost study (which cites a lower number of illegal aliens than the KFF's) indicated that illegal aliens impose a net fiscal burden of at least $143.1 billion.