Gov. Gavin Newsom seeks $3.4B loan to help shortfall in California's Medi-Cal program
SACRAMENTO – California Gov. Gavin Newsom is seeking a $3.4 billion loan from the general fund to help a shortfall in the state Medi-Cal healthcare program.
It comes a year after the governor expanded Medi-Cal to undocumented immigrants.
A spokesperson for the governor's office said the money was needed for several reasons, including rising costs of health care in general.
It's the state medical coverage of undocumented immigrants now creating political pushback.
"More mismanagement by this governor," Republican Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher said.
Gallager was quick to pounce on the problem of the state health insurance program for low-income people.
"What has been the biggest driver of cost to the medical system," Gallagher said. "It's been adding illegal immigrants to those rolls."
The estimated cost for Medi-Cal for undocumented immigrants ballooned from a projected $6.4 billion in July, to $9.5 billion now.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas issued a statement reading in part:
"There are tough choices ahead, and Assembly Democrats will closely examine any proposal from the governor. But let's be clear: We will not roll over and leave our immigrants behind."
Jose Rodriguez is the president of El Concilio California, an immigrant rights organization that receives California funding to help sign people up for Medi-Cal.
"It just seems unfortunate that we're short on funding as a government we always want to scapegoat the immigrant community," Rodriguez said. "These are some of the hardest working people in our country and doing the job that no one else wants to do."
"I'm sure there will be an effort to roll back some of the access because the federal government is threatening to cut Medicaid," Rodriguez said.
Newsom rolled out the state's full-scope Medi-Cal expansion to undocumented immigrants in 2019 and expanded the program to all ages in 2024.
Now there is new scrutiny over California healthcare costs that could lead to cuts.
So far the governor's finance department has not released a detailed breakdown what caused the increase in healthcare costs or if there will be more money needed from the general fund on top of this loan.
