On the heels of President Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration, state senator Ricardo Lara has reintroduced legislation (SB 4) to provide access to affordable health coverage and care to all Californians, regardless of immigration status. The details of SB 4 have not been spelled out, but Senator Lara’s previous bill called for the state to offer the coverage available under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to undocumented immigrants: Medi-Cal coverage to those below 138% of the federal poverty level (annual income of about $16,000 for a single person) and subsidies to purchase coverage to individuals earning up to 400% of the poverty level (about $46,700 annually).
As PPIC pointed out in a recent blog post, while the ACA excludes undocumented immigrants from the coverage expansions, President Obama’s executive order could pave the way for immigrants in California who are eligible for the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability program (and who meet income eligibility requirements) to get Medi-Cal coverage. Under current Medi-Cal eligibility rules, immigrants with deferred action status—meaning that their presence is known to the government and there are no plans to deport them—can receive full coverage under a benefit category known as PRUCOL (Persons Residing Under Color of Law). Some states, including California and New York, provide full Medicaid coverage for the PRUCOL group. This coverage is financed entirely by the states—the federal government funds only emergency medical treatment for undocumented immigrants.
The president’s action could also have implications for county programs that are required by state law to provide medical care to indigent residents. Currently, counties have considerable latitude in determining eligibility criteria for their indigent care programs, and many exclude undocumented immigrants. When state officials decided to expand Medi-Cal eligibility under the ACA, they reduced the funding provided to county indigent care programs because many of the people served by these programs would become eligible for Medi-Cal. The legislation (AB 85) that redirected state funds for county health programs included a provision to review this funding shift if there was federal action on immigration reform, but it’s not clear if that will happen in this case.
What is clear is that options for providing access to insurance coverage and health care for the more than 2.5 million undocumented immigrants in the state is a policy topic under consideration by policymakers at local and state levels.