Amid an escalating federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants, a majority of Californians support extending Medicaid benefits to immigrants without legal status, according to two recent polls.
This broad public backing in the state contrasts sharply with the increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric emanating from Washington. Advocates hope the findings will shape how California navigates its budget shortfall and looming federal cuts to Medicaid. The state has gradually expanded coverage to undocumented residents since 2016, with notable health improvements among those populations.
As Gov. Gavin Newsom prepares to unveil a revised budget in the face of growing fiscal pressures and increased national attention on immigration, these poll results add a crucial dimension to the debate over who gets access to healthcare in California, said Miguel Santana, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation, which conducted one of the recent polls.
“There’s a disconnect between the dominant narrative and reality,” Santana said. “Efforts to do mass deportations, to deny immigrant services, to marginalize them further, are out of step with how Californians think about these issues.”
In March, the California Community Foundation surveyed 800 Californians who voted in the 2024 election and found that 57% of respondents were in favor of allowing all income-eligible residents, regardless of immigration status, access to Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. In addition, 68% of respondents favored allowing undocumented residents to purchase health insurance through the state’s Affordable Care Act-created Covered California health exchange, which is currently prohibited under federal law.
Most Californians understand the varied and critical roles immigrants play in the state’s communities and industries, according to Santana.
“[Californians] are worried that mass deportations and limiting access to basic services like health care will actually impact all of us,” Santana said. “The pandemic showed us that when one person gets sick, it doesn’t matter what their legal status is, it impacts all of us.”
Another poll conducted by the POLITICO-UC Berkeley Citron Center showed similar findings, with a “slim majority” of California voters supporting state-funded health coverage for undocumented residents.
Over the last decade, the state has gradually expanded Medi-Cal eligibility to undocumented immigrants — first by covering children in 2016, then young adults, followed by individuals 50 and older in 2022 and finally all undocumented immigrants at the start of 2024.
The expansions have been more successful — and expensive — than expected. In 2023, state officials estimated that the final expansion would see about 700,000 undocumented immigrants gain health coverage. Instead, some 1.6 million immigrants without legal status are now enrolled in Medi-Cal, costing the state $2.7 billion more than what was budgeted. Those additional expenses contributed to California’s budget deficit and led Newsom to take out a multibillion dollar loan to cover Medi-Cal shortfalls in March.
