California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom proposed providing universal healthcare to all low-income residents, regardless of immigration status, living in the Golden State on Monday.
The proposal is one of many inside Newsom’s proposed 2022-23 state budget he released on Monday, according to Fox News. The California Blueprint plan, totaling $213 billion, also includes proposals to fund a state gun buy-back program and invest “billions” in climate change plans.
“Governor Newsom’s Blueprint will make California the first state in the nation to offer universal access to healthcare coverage for all state residents, regardless of immigration status,” a summary of the plan says.
“With major new investments to tackle the greatest threats to our state’s future, the California Blueprint lights the path forward to continue the historic progress we’ve made on our short-term and long-term challenges, including responding to the evolving pandemic, fighting the climate crisis, taking on persistent inequality and homelessness, keeping our streets safe and more,” Newsom said in a statement. “As California’s robust recovery continues, we’re doubling down on our work to ensure all our communities can thrive.”
The Democratic governor singled out the universal healthcare proposal in a press conference on Monday.
“Here’s the big one: California is poised to be, if this proposal is supported, the first state in the country to achieve universal access to health coverage,” Newsom said, according to Fox News. “So, what does that mean? It means full-scope Medi-Cal, including long-term care, IHSS [In-Home Supportive Services], and behavioral health to all low-income Californians, regardless of immigration status.”
California has experienced an exodus of people since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many high-profile emigrants, such as podcaster Joe Rogan and entrepreneur Elon Musk, have voiced displeasure with California’s progressive bent or the state’s heavy-handed response to the pandemic before moving.
Still, Newsom has continued to push forward progressive ideas after soundly defeating an attempt to recall him from office in September.
Last month, Newsom pledged to support gun control legislation in response to a recently enacted law in Texas banning abortions after about six weeks. As The Daily Wire reported:
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom released a statement on Saturday concerning his “outrage” over the Supreme Court’s decision to allow a ban on most abortion services in Texas, and claiming that he plans to create a similar bill against assault weapons and ghost guns.
“I am outraged by yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Texas’s ban on most abortion services to remain in place, and largely endorsing Texas’s scheme to insulate its law from the fundamental protections of Roe v. Wade,” Newsom said in a statement.
“But if states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way,” he added.