Don Pedro Montes Vargas is one among an estimated 27,000 undocumented seniors who may benefit from an enlargement of Medi-Cal. (Well being-Entry CA)
February 2, 2021
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The push is on to develop Medi-Cal to incorporate extra undocumented residents.
The Health4All coalition kicked off its 2021 efforts in assist of Senate Bill 56, which might develop Medi-Cal to incorporate low-income undocumented seniors, and Assembly Bill 4, which might open this system as much as all income-eligible Californians.
Dulce Garcia, government director of Border Angels and a member of the advisory board of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Coalition, mentioned her father, who’s undocumented, has suffered terribly with out entry to medical health insurance.
“When he broke his arm, he was terrified,” Garcia defined. “Not solely of immigration however of the invoice. He waited a couple of week after it obtained actually, actually painful. So the physician instructed him it’s important to go to the emergency proper now, or they will should amputate in the event you wait any longer.”
Specialists estimate including all income-eligible seniors to Medi-Cal would value $80 million to start out and about $350 million a yr after that.
Don Pedro Montes Vargas, 76, talking via translator Andre Barros, mentioned as an undocumented particular person he cannot afford to retire, so he collects recyclables with a view to pay for his prescriptions for hypertension, excessive ldl cholesterol and diabetes.
“He thought he would qualify for low-income companies, however sadly they gave him a giant invoice and so they charged him some huge cash for his drugs,” Barros relayed.
Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, the invoice’s writer, mentioned the state’s 1.5 million undocumented folks, amongst them 27,000 seniors, shouldn’t be pressured to depend on emergency rooms.
“They’re the working poor,” Durazo noticed. “They contribute $3.2 billion in taxes to fund companies like Medi-Cal. And but, they’re nonetheless denied entry to main care.”
She famous the pandemic has exacerbated inequities. Latino residents are 3 times as probably, and Black residents twice as probably, to be hospitalized for COVID in comparison with Caucasian residents.
