California taxes are known for being among the highest in the country. California has tax rates higher in just about every category of taxation than almost every other state. How is it possible that a state with the astronomical income from its burdensome tax rates manages to find itself in such dire financial straits? Could it be because it squanders billions of dollars on things like providing insurance to immigrants regardless of their status?

According to Fox11LA, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a  $307.9 billion operating budget that pledges to make all low-income adults eligible for the state’s Medicaid program by 2024, regardless of their immigration status. The move will provide coverage for an additional 764,000 people at an eventual cost of about $2.7 billion annually.

“This will represent the biggest expansion of coverage in the nation since the start of the Affordable Care Act in 2014,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a statewide consumer health care advocacy group. “In California, we recognize (that) everybody benefits when everyone is covered.”

In California, Republicans and conservative groups have opposed expanding health care to immigrants living in the country illegally. Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said offering free health care will make California “a magnet for those who are not legally authorized to enter the country.”

“I think many of us are very sympathetic to the immigrant community, but we really wish we had better control of who enters this nation and this state,” Coupal said.

Democrats in the state Legislature say they are working with the Newsom administration on speeding up the process.

“We’re doing all that we can. We’re talking to the administration, talking to the leadership in the (California) Department of Health, to make sure that we do it as fast as possible and that nobody loses it in the meanwhile,” said Democratic Sen. Maria Elena Durazo. “It doesn’t make sense to lose them and then pull them back in.”

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Should the residents of California be concerned if the state cannot afford to pay for illegals’ insurance costs in their state? No worries if the federal government steps in to rescue them.   In June 2020, California essentially demanded a bailout, insisting that taxes paid by all 50 states expressly to the federal government instead be sent to California. Newsom and legislative leaders agreed on how to close a huge $54 billion deficit in California’s state budget, which avoided cuts to health and social services at that time. In addition, the governor called on Congress to pass a relief package for states and local governments struggling with budget shortfalls due to the pandemic and increased emergency spending. Therefore, there are no worries about being the first state to guarantee insurance to all when the other 50 states are there to bail you out.

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli,File)

Newsom told CNN’s “State of the Union” that a state bailout was not “charity” and that Congress has a “moral and ethical obligation” to help Americans across the country.

 

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