Just hours after being sworn in as the 40th governor of California on Monday, Gavin Newsom promised to expand the pool of illegal immigrants eligible to receive government-sponsored health care as part of his mission to provide “sanctuary to all who seek it” in the state.
After his swearing in Monday afternoon, Newsom’s office released a list of priorities the former lieutenant governor plans to pursue as part of his first state budget. Included on the list is a proposal to expand the pool of Californians covered by Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid, to include illegal immigrants ages 19 to 26. (Undocumented-immigrant minors are already eligible to receive coverage under Medi-Cal.)
If passed by the state legislature, the ambitious initiative would make California “the first state in the nation to cover young undocumented adults through a state Medicaid program,” according to a Monday release from the governor’s office.
In his address to supporters at the state capitol in Sacramento following his swearing in, Newsom laid out his vision to expand California’s sprawling welfare state so that it can provide health insurance to the state’s roughly 40 million residents.
