Kevin Kiley: “Yesterday California Governor Gavin Newsom finally backed down from his irresponsible, reckless policy of providing…”

“Yesterday California Governor Gavin Newsom finally backed down from his irresponsible, reckless policy of providing full-scope Medicaid, Medi-Cal coverage to every person who is income eligible in our State illegally. Of course, the Governor did not do the right thing on his own but only in response to the pressure that we have brought to bear. It has been painfully obvious that this policy, which no other State in the country has, was utterly unsustainable and was threatening the solvency of Medicaid in California itself. The cost has ballooned for this year to $10 billion, over three times what was initially estimated. The Governor has had to take out an emergency loan and then separately go to the legislature in the middle of the year for a bailout. The Governor has finally acknowledged this, that the policy should never have been enacted, and he has said he is going to freeze any new enrollment by adults who are in our country illegally. However, the Governor is only partially reversing his policy. Indeed, by the time this freeze goes into effect, we will have already spent $23 billion that could have gone toward improving access to care for legal California residents. The partial repeal is not a solution. For one thing, it will continue to cost us enormous sums in State tax dollars. For another, it could lead to the loss of billions and billions of dollars every year in Federal funding.”