California built its health coverage system over decades, expanding Medi-Cal and helping millions of residents get insured. Now that progress is reversing.
Facing state budget shortfalls and new federal restrictions, California is dismantling the very system that at one point almost covered everyone.
In a new documentary, CalMatters goes inside one clinic in Los Angeles to show how Californians are being forced to choose between medicine and food. With unusual access, reporter Kristen Hwang follows providers anxious about the safety net’s future even as they wrestle daily with the tangled legacy of past decisions.
New analysis from the UC Berkeley Labor Center and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research projects the state’s uninsured rate could nearly double, to almost 15%, by 2030.
An estimated 2.2 million people will lose coverage over the next four years.
- Miranda Dietz, director of the labor center’s healthcare program: “I knew it was going to be bad, but seeing that doubling was shocking to me.”
The losses won’t be spread evenly. Undocumented immigrants and low-income Californians will be hit hardest, and the uninsured rate is expected to more than double among Black and Asian Californians. Southern California, with its larger share of low-income and immigrant residents, will bear the brunt.
- Watch our documentary, done in partnership with Evident Media
- Read Kristen’s story, alongside tips on how to protect your coverage
CalMatters events: Join us Wednesday in Riverside for a free conversation about how California will educate its future workforce. CalMatters’ Adam Echelman will moderate a discussion with health, education and workforce leaders. Register here.
CalMatters and inewsource are also hosting a conversation on Aug. 13 in San Ysidro about the Tijuana River contamination crisis, an environmental emergency affecting millions on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Register.
Other Stories You Should Know
GOP Assembly leader ousted
From CalMatters politics reporter Kate Wolffe:
Less than a year after he officially stepped into the role as Assembly Republican leader, Central Valley Assemblymember Heath Flora has been ousted in favor of relative newcomer Alexandra Macedo of Visalia.
Modesto Assemblymember Juan Alanis said the change came in part because his fellow Republicans were unhappy with Flora’s support of Senate Bill 762 in July. The bill would permit 13 local jurisdictions to raise their sales taxes, subject to voter approval. Alanis and Flora both helped the bill get the minimum votes it needed to cross the finish line.
- Assemblymember Josh Hoover of Folsom, who will serve as the party’s new floor leader under Macedo: “This new leadership team is very laser focused on opposing tax increases.”
Hoover and Macedo both said the decision was unrelated to claims in the California Post, which reported Sunday that Flora was being investigated by the Fair Political Practices Commission for potential violations of policies related to behested payments and campaign finance spending. The FPPC confirmed it is conducting those probes. Flora did not respond to a request for comment.
CA expands school lunch program
This month, the state expanded a program to provide fresh, healthy meals to public school students, writes CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones.
The Farm to School program launched in 2021 and has been such a success that it’s now a permanent part of the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture. The program works with nearly 600 small California farmers, as well as ranchers and other food producers, to provide food for 500 school districts.
In addition to applying for grants to obtain local food and fresh produce such as cherry tomatoes, radishes and turnips, schools can send students on field trips to farms or cafeteria workers to culinary academies through the program. Farm to School is part of the state’s broader effort to improve school meals — an endeavor that the state has invested more than $1 billion in since 2021.
- Jacob Weiss, general manager of Spork, a Davis food hub that works with farms and schools participating in the program: “People think kids don’t like vegetables, but we found that if you give them fresh, delicious vegetables, they love it.”
And lastly: Nonnative swans are in decline
California’s mute swan population fell by half this year compared to the previous year — an indication that a state law allowing hunters and landowners to kill them is working as intended. Read more from CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: As Gov. Gavin Newsom edges closer to a presidential campaign, he has been adjusting his image accordingly — first drifting rightward in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s reelection, and then repositioning himself back toward the left, apparently out of concern for alienating left-leaning activists.
California lawmakers should pass a bill that would require high schools to teach students how to pre-register to vote, because a citizenry that knows how to vote is the strongest way to protect our democracy, writes Conner Huey, a Fulbright Scholar who earned a masters degree at the University of Groningen.
Other things worth your time:
Trump overhaul could gut Head Start preschool standards, leaving states to set the rules // AP News (free)
Billionaire tax measure wins backing of CA Democratic Party // San Francisco Chronicle (gift link)
CA could require voter ID. Both sides say voters are being misled // The Mercury News (gift link)
Judge rules that recycling symbol could be free speech, pausing CA law to limit the symbol // Grist (free)
ICE detainee in LA reveals video of drinking water apparently contaminated with worm-like creatures // The Guardian (free)
Dozens of women and children in LA who survived domestic violence at risk of losing shelter services // LAist (free)
The percentage of homes surviving CA wildfires is dropping, despite efforts to harden them // Los Angeles Times (paywall)
CA relies on goats to combat fires. A wage change threatens the industry // The Sacramento Bee (gift link)
