State-funded Medi-Cal Offers Insurance Boon to California Immigrants

Though President Obama stated last year that DACA recipients — youth who have grown up in the United States and given permission to live and work in the country for two-year renewable periods– were not eligible to receive federal benefits, some may qualify for state-funded only Medi-Cal.

California is one of a few states with large immigrant populations that use state dollars to run a Medicaid program to fund lawfully present immigrants. The program funds all-low income immigrants as long as they meet the eligibility requirements for regular Medi-Cal.

“California has long recognized the need to provide health insurance to people who are here lawfully because it believes it’s a good idea to invest in preventive care,” said Tanya Broder, a senior attorney with the National Immigration Law Center.

In California, 73,104 young immigrants have been given DACA status out of a pool of 134,167 applicants, as of the end of last March.

The directive may be particularly beneficial to undocumented immigrant parents who, a Human Impact Partners (HIP) study show, are afraid to access health care for themselves or their children out of fear of revealing their immigration status and risking deportation.

U.S.-born children of undocumented parents are twice as likely as children of citizens to lack insurance or be otherwise unable to access medical care.