- Felicia Matlosz
- 559-304-9286
FRESNO, CA – Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) is announcing to residents in the 31st Assembly District and Central Valley that California, as of May 1, has expanded full-scope Medi-Cal to all income-eligible adults 50 years of age and older, regardless of immigration status.
Last year, Governor Newsom in Fresno signed Assembly Bill 133, the omnibus health bill that Assemblymember Arambula helped craft and guide as chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Health and Human Services that included funding the Medi-Cal expansion.
California is the first state in the nation to provide this coverage to this age level of undocumented seniors and elders. The number of new eligible recipients is more than 185,000 people.
Assemblymember Arambula said: “I’m elated to see this key measure become a reality for so many vulnerable seniors and elderly who need access to quality health care. They are people who for years have paid their share of taxes and contributed to California’s economy. We also know the COVID-19 pandemic made strikingly clear how the inequities in our health care system adversely impacted the poor and underserved.
“I encourage everyone who now is eligible for this coverage to apply.”
New eligible recipients can go online to https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/CountyOffices.aspx to contact their specific county office for information and to submit an application.
Assemblymember Arambula said he also appreciates that Governor Newsom has included in the proposed 2022-23 budget the expansion of full scope Medi-Cal coverage to income-eligible adults ages 26 through 49, regardless of immigration status.
This would follow the successful efforts by advocates in the past six years to gain such coverage for children, then young adults up to age 26, and now this year’s inclusion of seniors.
Closing the gap to include adults ages 26 to 49 is the aim of the Assemblymember Arambula’s bill, AB 4. Arambula said he and health and immigration rights advocates still are championing AB 4, known as the Health for All bill, to make it a state law. It’s estimated this group of beneficiaries would be more than 700,000.
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