The bill would phase down the Medicaid expansion from 2020 to 2024, somewhat more slowly than the House bill does. But it would still end eventually. The Senate bill also departs from the House bill’s flat tax credits to help pay for insurance, which would have added thousands of dollars to the premiums of poorer and older people not yet eligible for Medicare.

Health Access, a Sacramento-based advocacy group, estimates that anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 young adults without papers might enroll in Medi-Cal were the expansion to be approved.

(Español) Trump prometió un plan que cubriría a más personas, costaría menos y dejaría al Medicaid intacto, pero este irresponsable proyecto de ley hace lo contrario, “amenazando vidas y dando el mayor golpe a los ancianos y a los más pobres”.

(Español) Algunos estados liderados por republicanos consideran cambios a sus programas de Medicaid, para reducir beneficiarios. Por ejemplo, exigir que los beneficiarios tengan empleo a la hora de recibir el beneficio, o paguen las primas e incluso anular el límite de por vida en la cobertura de Medicaid.

Block grants or per-capita caps would create funding gaps for states, likely cutting the number of Medicaid-eligible people and reducing coverage for beneficiaries, the report said.

Donald Trump has also threatened to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. This would include removing federal funding for the Medicaid, or Medi-Cal in California.

(Español) Actualmente hay cinco estados que ofrecen cobertura auspiciada por el gobierno a menores sin documentos legales de residencia, California es el último en sumarse a esta lista, que comprende a Illinois, Massachusetts y Nueva York, así como al Distrito de Columbia.