Immigration Reform 2015: California Health Care For Undocumented Immigrant Children Could Start With New Budget Deal

The California Legislature agreed Tuesday to a budget that would let undocumented and low-income immigrant children receive health insurance through the state's Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. The Medi-Cal expansion was expected to cost the state around $40 million in the next budget. After that, there would be an annual cost of $132 million.

California has some of the most progressive immigration politics in the country. The state was one of the first to begin issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, and by April had received applications for more than 200,000 of the licenses. Nationally, there are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants.

"This is the best budget we've seen in years," Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat, told a press conference with the governor.

The budget itself totals $115.4 billion, down by $2.1 billion from the proposal floating around last week, the Los Angeles Times reported. It provides 7,000 to 13,500 more slots for preschool programs and 6,800 child care slots.

Originally, Democrats were shooting for 27,000 preschool slots, but many in the Statehouse are satisfied with the compromise. The new preschool and child care openings could be paid for with $265 million in rate provider increases.

Gov. Jerry Brown announced there would be two special legislative sessions this year to discuss road and bridge infrastructure funding as well as healthcare funding.