Becerra Pledges To Keep All Californians Insured After Trump Health Care Cuts

SACRAMENTO, California — Democratic candidate for governor Xavier Becerra pledged Tuesday that he would find money in California’s budget to keep everyone in the state on health insurance after cuts by the Trump administration.

At POLITICO's The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit, the former secretary of Health and Human Services, who is favored to win the race for governor, said he would ask the health care industry to open its books, reduce administrative waste and lower costs.

“I don't want anyone to lose their health care,” Becerra said. “In fact, I want to get more of Californians insured and covered. And what I will do is I will become the backstop. California will become the backstop for health care.”

Federal health care cuts are set to hit next year when the next governor would take office and could lead to more than 1.3 million Californians losing their health insurance. State budget pressure and the Trump administration’s cuts prompted current Gov. Gavin Newsom to scale back some of his own ambitions for expanding health care access.

Earlier in the day, top state lawmakers working on health policy said they would ask Becerra to backfill the federal cuts to Medi-Cal — the state’s Medicaid program — for undocumented residents that Newsom’s administration made.

Becerra also on Tuesday made his strongest case yet in favor of a “fair share” tax proposed by legislators. The proposal would levy a fine on businesses with a large number of employees on public benefits like Medi-Cal, though the exact details are still being worked out.

“Why should we subsidize health care for those folks who are working full time because their employer won’t pay them enough so they can afford health insurance?” Becerra said.

“Does that mean more taxes? I don’t know. If you’re not paying enough for your workers, maybe that means we have to raise taxes on some of these bigger companies.”