California Taxpayers Are Paying for Welfare Benefits for Illegal Immigrants

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s free healthcare for illegal immigrants drove Medi-Cal to insolvency, the Globe reported one year ago. One year ago California’s Medi-Cal system was bankrupted by the governor, who expanded it to provide free medical care to millions of people in the state illegally, while California taxpayers were not only on the hook for the bill, but waiting in long lines for the medical care they have to pay for.

Medi-Cal is California’s version of Medicaid, providing free or low-cost health coverage.

That Gov. Newsom wants to continue to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants is not rumor. The Globe has covered this saga for some time now.

Newsom’s Medi-Cal program for low-income Californians was insolvent, and is now being funded by the state’s taxpayers. We have Gavin Newsom to thank; he gifted free Medi-Cal coverage to every illegal immigrant in the state, costing  taxpayers $23 billion over 2 years, forcing Newsom to get both an emergency loan and a bailout, Rep. Kevin Kiley confirmed.

But even before fully bankrupting California’s Medi-Cal system, we reported Newsom planned to cut Medi-Cal to any poor or disabled elderly Californian who has $2,000 in “assets.”

It’s hard to see how anyone able to access Medi-Cal benefits has any measurable assets. Medi-Cal is medical health care for people on welfare.

In California, rental homes are very expensive, requiring renters to have enough on hand to cover future rent payments, as well as emergency expenses and medical expenses not covered by Medi-Cal.

The average rent in San Francisco is $3,845 per month for 1-bedroom units, $4,599 per month for 2-bedroom units. The average rent in Los Angeles is around $2,758 per month. Two-bedroom units rent for $3,364. Three-bedrooms rent for $4,365. Houses for rent in Los Angeles are significantly more expensive at $4,925 per month on average. The average rent in San Diego is $3,100.

It’s difficult to find many “assets” with people on Medi-Cal who are renting in San Francisco, Los Angeles or San Diego. The very idea that the governor would cut Medi-Cal benefits to California residents to provide it to illegal immigrants is ruthless.

The governor also proposed “freezing new enrollment” for illegal aliens as a way to cut Medi-Cal costs. Really? Not signing up more illegal aliens for Medi-Cal will “cut Medi-Cal costs?”The numbers we had last year said Newsom had already cost taxpayers $10-$12 billion.

“I can’t be overdrawn – I still have checks left,” was my favorite dumb blonde bumper sticker in the 1980’s, and apropos in California today. Newsom is overdrawn – but with no checks left.

In March 2025, Newsom confessed that California’s Medi-Cal was insolvent. As Rep. Kiley noted, “the cost of Newsom’s policy of giving free coverage to every illegal immigrant in the state has ballooned to $9.5 billion, and he’s now asked for a $3.4 billion “loan” just to continue making payments for this month.”

This week, Chris Rufo at City Journal did a deep dive into California’s welfare system and reported “California runs the nation’s largest welfare system, devoting more than $180 billion annually to food, health care, and other programs for the poor and downtrodden. To sustain the arrangement, the state imposes the nation’s highest tax rates.”

The entire California annual budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 is approximately $495.6 billion, including a projected $20 to $35 billion deficit, marking a continuation of significant financial difficulties in the state. Newsom’s spending has exploded during his governorship, far outstripping stagnant population growth, Dan Walters reported earlier in the year. “In the seven budgets Newsom has signed, beginning with 2019-20, and the eighth one he has proposed, revenues have increased by 60%, mostly from taxes that tapped into a 48% increase in Californians’ personal income during the period. Total spending, however, jumped 72%, from $203 billion to $349 billion.”

Rufo found that California’s welfare system serves “large numbers of illegal immigrants. Today, California oversees a shadow welfare system that allows noncitizens to receive health care, rental assistance, college grants, tax credits, low-cost car insurance, and even smartphones on the taxpayers’ dime.”

Before he was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Central District, then-Assemblyman Bill Essayli asked in a budget committee hearing, “Is there any limit to how many people can sign up for this new program? It’s an entitlement. So if a million people cross the border tomorrow and come sign up for Medi-Cal, can they do that?”

The response from the State of California: “I don’t believe there is any requirement or lack of requirement.”

Rufo found this out first hand: “We visited four public-services offices in Southern California, each of which admitted that illegal aliens can enroll in public-welfare programs or receive benefits on their children’s behalf.”

The programs Rufo discovered provided to illegal immigrants include Medi-Cal, CAPI (Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants), CalWORKs, Section 8 rental subsidies, CalEITC (California Earned Income Tax Credit), and related tax credits, California LifeLine phones, low-cost auto insurance, and state college grants via the CADAA application.

You may wonder how illegal immigrants are getting tax credits from the State of California when they pay no income taxes… “CalEITC rules do not always require a Social Security Number.”

“In total, California taxpayers spent at least $11 billion subsidizing illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year. The state’s shadow welfare system, it seems, shows no signs of slowing down,” Rufo said.

According to California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, Medi-Cal is the largest spending item on illegal immigrants. California phased in full-scope coverage for illegal immigrants of all ages. Enrollment reached roughly 1.7 million (approximately 11% of Medi-Cal enrollees). Because most of those services are ineligible for federal matching funds, the California General Fund cost ballooned past Legislative Analyst’s Office projections and is now more than $12 billion.

To pay for the 1.7 million illegal immigrants on Medi-Cal, the 2025-26 budget allotted approximately $12.4 billion total ($11.1 billion state + $1.3 billion federal, mainly for limited emergency/pregnancy services), or about one-quarter of all state Medi-Cal General Fund spending.

These amounts dramatically exceeded original budget projections, contributing to the 2025 Medi-Cal shortfall that required the $3.44 billion loan plus additional appropriations.

In response, the budget Newsom signed froze new adult illegal immigrant enrollment starting January 2026, added a $30 monthly premium for remaining adults ages 19–59 beginning in 2027, and eliminated dental coverage for illegal immigrant adults in July 2026. Those changes are projected to produce growing savings in later years, according to the LAO.

California taxpayers are paying more than $12 billion for illegal immigrant medical care, and more than $37+ Billion on “homeless” drug addicted vagrants according to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office 2025-2026 budget overview.

Newsom’s High Speed Rail project has ballooned to over $130 billion, with only an estimated partial completion somewhere in the late 2030’s. The system still needs $100 billion if it ever links up San Francisco and Los Angeles.

California received $120Billion in federal Medicaid funds in 2025 – more in federal Medicaid funding next year than Florida’s entire state budget – and the increase is more than Nevada’s entire state budget.

Remember when Newsom bragged that California had a budget surplus and that “no other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this.”

That was catnip to the big spenders in the Legislature, who went on a spending spree for a couple of years. “But the projected revenue increase turned out to be an illusion, and subsequently the administration acknowledged that it had over-estimated revenues by $165 billion over four years,” Dan Walter reported.

What exactly are the taxpayers getting out of this budget? That is something every California voter should consider this November, regardless of party. We all are paying for this – Democrats, Republicans, No Party Preference, and Independents – and getting very little back. The ROI for taxpayers sucks.