Thanks, Obama: 400,000 Illegals Now Will Get Free Healthcare in California

22 Nov, 2014 by Warner Todd Huston

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During his amnesty announcement, Obama claimed that these 5 million suddenly “legal” lawbreaking immigrants will not get free healthcare. Looks like he lied, at least as far as illegals in California goes.

Upwards to 400,000 illegals will now qualify for government-paid healthcare in California now that they have legal status.

Roughly one million undocumented immigrants in California qualify for President Obama’s executive action of deferred deportation that he announced on Thursday. Of those 40% will be eligible for the states free Medi-Cal health services, while the remaining will be ineligible under the program’s income requirements.

Medi-Cal is the state’s name for Medicaid, a federal health services program for people who have low income. According to KQED News, the newly protected illegal immigrants do not qualify for other benefits of the Affordable Care Act and are not eligible for subsidies on the Covered California exchange.

“They’ll be in the same situation as DACA,” said Gabrielle Lessard, a health policy attorney with the Los Angeles office of the National Immigration Law Center. Lessard was referring to a 2012 executive action by the president known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA granted deferred deportation to children born in America from parents who were in the country illegally.

You and I both know that it won’t be many more months before Obama and the Democrats start pushing for the rest of the 5 million to get free healthcare.