As Governor Newsom proposes to tap more than $13 billion from the state’s reserves to address a crippling budget deficit, a rival effort is underway by Republicans to “reprioritize limited taxpayer resources for California citizens in need rather than illegal immigrants who are citizens of a foreign nation.” 

A bill introduced by Assemblyman Bill Essayli would remove all taxpayer funding for healthcare coverage for illegal immigrants after a recent policy went into effect that completed the state’s universal low-income healthcare plan and expanded benefits to more than 700,000 unauthorized migrants. 

Other states should “take note of what not to do,” Mr. Essayli tells the Sun, adding he is concerned that the new policy would make the Golden State “a giant magnet for migrants.” They would, he warned, see its enormous benefits as “really enticing.”

“We’re going to be inundated with more illegal immigrants here in California, and I think other states should be cautious before they create programs that incentivize similar behavior,” he says. 

The bill, Mr. Essayli says, despite not being popular with Democratic lawmakers, has received “overwhelming support” from the public as people grapple with inflation and their own high insurance premiums. 

“People are frustrated with the government not being good stewards of their tax dollars, that they would prioritize citizens of other nations above our own citizens here,” he says. Many of the state’s lawmakers are “not happy” with the effort, he adds, and “are more interested in virtue signaling and appearing to do what they think sounds good.” 

California’s recent expansion, which went into effect on January 1, expanded the state’s low-income healthcare program, Medi-Cal, to cover all ages, regardless of legal status, instead of its previous coverage of only children and adults older than 50. 

“Medi-Cal is not a good system, and frankly the reimbursement rates for hospitals and providers do not even cover their costs,” Mr. Essayli says. “So it’s an already strained system, people have difficulty getting access to healthcare in that system, and they’re putting millions more people on it. It’s going to make the system break for everyone.” 

Mr. Newsom remains committed to the expansion of tax-funded healthcare despite the backlash. When asked recently if he would consider a possible rollback of the expansion, he doubled down on it, saying, “I believe in universal healthcare, I believe that it’s a fundamental right.” 

His office confirms that sentiment to the Sun, adding that when people have greater access to healthcare, chronic conditions are identified, lowering the number of emergency room visits and more expensive treatments down the road. Because hospitals aren’t trying to cover the cost of treating the uninsured, Mr. Newsom’s office notes, overall healthcare costs decrease. 

“In California, we believe everyone deserves access to quality, affordable health care coverage — regardless of income or immigration status,” Mr. Newsom says in a statement to the Sun. “Through this expansion, we’re making sure families and communities across California are healthier, stronger, and able to get the care they need when they need it.”

California is facing a budget deficit that the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated is $68 billion, while Mr. Newsom estimates it to be $38 billion. That $30 billion estimate gap is due to different assumptions about revenue sources and savings, a Pacific Research Institute economist, Wayne Winegarden, tells the Sun. Even the governor’s lower estimate of $38 billion is a “huge deficit historically,” he says. 

“Either way, California is facing a huge deficit they have to close,” Mr. Winegarden reckons. “We’re spending way more than we can afford, and so now is the time to pay the pipers.”

While the reserves exist for this reason, and there’s “some logic to pulling on the reserves,” he says, the way Mr. Newsom is doing it is “disconcerting” because without a major revenue rebound, all it will do is shift the problem and burn through reserve funds. 

“Using the reserves, it needs to be in conjunction with creating a more sustainable budget,” Mr. Winegarden says. “That’s not what’s happening.”