Welcome to California: the land of progressive Leftist policies that have people leaving the state in droves.
Beginning on January 1, 2024, illegal migrants living in California will become eligible for taxpayer-funded health insurance— just another incentive for illegal migrants to not want to leave the U.S.
California estimated 4.4 million illegal aliens will now qualify for Medi-Cal, which is California's state-funded version of the federal government's Medicaid program. Since 2015, only migrant children have been eligible for Medi-Cal.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D-CA.) decision to expand health insurance coverage to undocumented adults between the ages of 19-25 and those over 50 has California Republicans warning that it will "certainly exacerbate current provider access problems" as Medi-Cal "is already strained by serving 14.6 million Californians — more than a third of the state's population."
The state is already facing a $68 billion deficit in the next fiscal year, warning that Newsom's plan will cause the start to face unprecedented revenue and health care shortages.
"The expansion was a bad idea when the state's coffers were flush. Now that California is struggling to make ends meet, using taxpayer money to cover non-citizens is simply irresponsible," Sally Pipes, a healthcare policy expert and the president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, a California-based think tank, told The New Post.
She warned that people who have Medi-Cal are already facing long wait times for care and are struggling to find doctors to treat them because of the low reimbursement rates that the doctors receive from the government.
California officials predict that more than 1.2 million illegal aliens will eventually be using subsidized health insurance.
The California Senate Republican Caucus criticized Newsom's plans to expand health insurance to illegal migrants, which will cost the state at least $2.6 billion per year.
Since taking office, President Joe Biden, the number of illegal aliens crossing into the U.S. has skyrocketed. Last year, 2.8 million were stopped or turned away at the southern border— the highest number since at least 1980.
Customs Border and Protection's total encounters in September were 269,735, including 218,763 Border Patrol arrests at illegal crossing points and another 50,972 expulsions at ports of entry.
The record monthly number brought the total number of migrant encounters for the 2023 fiscal year to 2.48 million, up from 2.38 million in 2022— the highest of any year on record.
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