Newsom’s budget proposal rolls back immigrant health care

The Weekly Dispatch

Community-powered immigration news from the Bay Area.

Welcome back to El Tímpano’s Weekly Dispatch. I’m Erica Hellerstein, senior immigration, labor, and economics reporter.

Last Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom released his proposed 2026–27 California state budget. Unless you’re a California policy wonk, the news may have gotten lost in the relentless churn of the 2026 news cycle, which in just a few weeks has included U.S. intervention in Venezuela, the killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis by an ICE agent, and nationwide protests demanding accountability for her death.

But the budget Newsom put forward deserves close attention, especially as it concerns California’s immigrant communities. If approved in its current form, the proposal would continue to chip away at one of Newsom’s signature accomplishments: expanding Medi-Cal access to undocumented immigrants. We’ll get into the politics behind these changes below, but first, let’s talk about what this budget could mean for immigrants across the state, particularly in light of new cuts to immigrant health care that took effect this month.

What’s in the proposal?

Under this version of the budget, undocumented immigrants, along with refugees, asylees, and survivors of trafficking and domestic violence, would face even more barriers to accessing health care in California. That’s happening as millions of Californians are already grappling with deep cuts to safety-net programs following the passage of the federal government’s sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), which became law in July 2025.

The proposed budget includes two provisions that advocates say would sharply reduce health coverage for immigrants.

The first would impose federal work requirements on undocumented adults who receive state-funded Medi-Cal. Under these rules, people would need to prove they are working, looking for work, or enrolled in a job-training program in order to keep their coverage.

For many undocumented Californians, this requirement is likely to create a catch-22: People who work under the table are not going to be able to provide the paperwork required to prove their employment status, even if they are working. And those who aren’t employed have all the more reasons to need the care.

“That is going to be an extra hurdle and something that a lot of undocumented immigrants probably aren’t going to be able to do,” Hannah Orbach-Mandel, a policy analyst with the California Budget & Policy Center, told me. “Which will just result in them getting kicked off their health insurance.”

The second provision would effectively end full health coverage for an estimated 200,000 immigrants who lost access to federally funded Medi-Cal under H.R.1. The bill cut off federal Medi-Cal funding for refugees, asylees, and survivors of domestic violence and trafficking. Newsom’s budget proposal will not provide this group with state-funded Medi-Cal as advocates had hoped, but would instead move them into restricted coverage that only provides emergency and pregnancy-related care.

Advocates are decrying these changes as downright Trumpian. “California can’t claim to be more compassionate than Trump while doubling down on his cruelty,” the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network said in a statement.

The subtext of these and other changes is that they are needed to close California’s projected $2.9 billion deficit. But critics argue that there are better ways to balance the budget, like closing corporate tax loopholes, that wouldn’t come at the expense of immigrant health care.

A major about-face from California’s “health care governor”

These proposed changes matter for multiple reasons. Most importantly, they could strip coverage from hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in California. But they also matter because of their symbolic weight.

Back in 2019, Newsom declared his intention to become California’s “health care governor,” due in large part to the state’s landmark decision to expand Medi-Cal to undocumented immigrants. That expansion began in 2015, when lawmakers passed legislation to gradually extend coverage to children and later undocumented adults who met the state’s income requirements.

An estimated 1.6 million people have since gained coverage under the expansion, according to UC Berkeley’s Labor Center. More than 56,400 people in Alameda County and 30,165 in Contra Costa County had enrolled as of October 2025, according to data I analyzed from the California Department of Health Care Services.

Now that expansion is unraveling. In last year’s state budget, lawmakers enacted a trifecta of cuts that rolled back Medi-Cal for undocumented immigrants, including an enrollment freeze that went into effect this month. Critics say Newsom’s latest proposal won’t just deepen the harm, but fails to meet the moment as the federal government intensifies its immigration crackdown. Theories abound about why Newsom is reneging on the signature public health policy he touted only a few years ago, including his likely run for the White House in 2028.

“The governor cannot talk about California as a beacon of progress and inclusion if we are telling some Californians that they can’t see a primary care doctor because of where they were born,” Masih Fouladi, the Executive Director of the the California Immigrant Policy Center, said at a press conference in Sacramento on Wednesday. “As Californians, we can’t say we support families and then stand by as their health care is being stripped away from them.”

In May, Newsom is expected to release his revised budget proposal, and negotiations will continue from there. We’ll be following closely. If you have thoughts or a story to share, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me at ehellerstein@eltimpano.org.

That’s all for now. See you next week.

— Erica Hellerstein

Explainer of the week

As 2026 begins, major changes to the health care system are taking effect that will significantly impact immigrant communities in the Bay Area and across California. In her latest explainer, El Tïmpano’s Vanessa G. Sánchez breaks down the policies, who will be affected, and what steps to take if you’re part of a group impacted by the changes.

Do you know someone who could benefit from this information? Share it with them and let them know they can text us any questions at (510) 800-8305.

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Ear to the Ground

El Tímpano’s text messaging (SMS) service reaches more than 6,000 Spanish-speaking immigrants across the Bay Area. Last week, we informed community members about new changes to state and federal healthcare policies that may impact their coverage and access to care. Here are a few of their responses:

“Right now, given the current situation, there’s hardly any work, everything is very expensive, and the salary isn’t enough. If there are changes with the medical system, let’s hope they don’t charge anything. And if they do, God willing, it won’t be too expensive.”

-Concord resident

“It’s a big problem for us. It really affects us immigrants that they deny us healthcare resources. I feel sad.”

-San Pablo resident

“I would like to know if there are any in-person Medi-Cal information sessions available somewhere.”

-Hayward resident

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At a South Alameda County bakery, Dia de los Reyes is a time honored tradition

El Tímpano’s Gabriela Calvillo Alvarez and Hiram Durán spent the dawn hours of Jan. 6 – Dia de los Reyes – inside a Hayward bakery that for 20 years has baked hundreds of the famous Rosca de Reyes cake for its customers.

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