SAN DIEGO — Beginning January 1, California will become the first state in the nation to offer health insurance to undocumented immigrants.
Under the expansion, more than 700,000 people between the ages of 26 and 49 now be eligible for Medi-Cal.
Immigrant rights advocates call the expansion of health care for undocumented adults a major milestone in California and sets a precedence for the country.
“This is a really major step in California," said Nedy Velazquez, Border Policy Coordinator at Alliance San Diego.
Velasquez is a DACA recipient who has been fighting and advocating for health expansion for years. She said undocumented people and lower income people often do not have access to preventative care.
"A lot of undocumented people and a lot of low-income people, because they don't have access to these resources, they wait until the very end to to hopefully receive some care and by then it's too late," she said.
Those who are eligible will be able to qualify for Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for low-income people. Medi-Cal offers access to primary and preventative care, specialists, prescription medicine and more.
“They also deserve a right to have access to primary needs that they don't generally have access to," added Velazquez.
Velasquez says having access to health care is a necessity the immigrant community shouldn’t have to put on hold.
“I do think a lot of people for so long have literally been neglecting their health because it just hasn't been accessible to them," she said.
California republicans have argued that the state’s Medi-Cal system could overload the state’s budget.
Velazquez says she thinks the state is moving in the right direction but believes there’s still more work to be done. That’s because many undocumented Californians will still remain ineligible for Medi-Cal because they make too much money to qualify, but not enough to afford private insurance.
“We really have to continue including more folks. And to not kind of forget about the ones who just make a little bit over," she said.
A persons immigrations status will not be shared with federal officials.
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