Perla Lopez, 35, works at St. John’s Community Health, a non-profit community health clinic in South Los Angeles. There, she helps patients, many of whom are undocumented immigrants, fill out applications for Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program. Since 2016, California has opened the program to undocumented residents, starting with children, then 19- to 25-year-olds, followed by adults 50 and older. In January, undocumented adults between 26 and 49 became eligible.
But state officials and health advocates worry that many of the more than 700,000 newly eligible residents may not enroll, either because they are not sure they would be eligible or even that drawing attention to themselves could lead to deportation.
