来源：《美联社新闻》
原文刊登日期：2022年7月1日
California on Thursday became the first state to guarantee free health care for all low-income immigrants living in the country illegally, a move that will provide coverage for an additional 764,000 people at an eventual cost of about $2.7 billion a year.
周四，加利福尼亚州成为第一个为所有非法居住在美国的低收入移民提供免费医疗保障的州，此举将为76.4万人提供医疗保障，最终每年花费约27亿美元。
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $307.9 billion operating budget that pledges to make all low-income adults eligible for the state’s Medicaid program by 2024 regardless of their immigration status. It’s a long-sought victory for health care and immigration activists, who have been asking for the change for more than a decade.
州长加文·纽森签署了一项3079亿美元的运营预算，承诺到2024年，让所有低收入成年人无论其移民身份如何都有资格享受加州的医疗补助计划。这是医疗保健和移民活动人士长期以来寻求的胜利，他们十多年来一直在要求改变。
Nationwide, federal and state governments join together to give free health care to low-income adults and children through Medicaid. But the federal government won’t pay for people who are living in the country illegally. Some states, including California, have used their own tax dollars to cover a portion of health care expenses for some low-income immigrants.
在全美范围内，联邦政府和各州政府联合起来，通过医疗补助计划(Medicaid)为低收入成人和儿童提供免费医疗。但是联邦政府不会为非法居住在美国的人买单。包括加州在内的一些州用自己的税收为一些低收入移民支付部分医疗费用。
Now, California wants to be the first to do that for everyone. About 92% of of Californians currently have some form of health insurance, putting the state in the middle of the pack nationally. But that will change once this budget is fully implemented, as adults living in the country illegally make up one of the largest groups of people without insurance in the state.
现在，加州想成为第一个为每个人提供医保的州。目前，加州约有92%的人拥有某种形式的医疗保险，在全美范围内处于中等水平。但一旦这个预算完全实施，情况就会改变，因为非法居住在美国的成年人构成了加州最大的无保险人群之一。
“This will represent the biggest expansion of coverage in the nation since the start of the Affordable Care Act in 2014,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a statewide consumer health care advocacy group.
“这将是自2014年《平价医疗法案》生效以来，美国医疗保险覆盖范围最大的一次扩大，”消费者医保倡导团体加州医疗服务机构执行董事安东尼·赖特说。
People living in the country illegally made up about 7% of the population nationwide in 2020, or about 22.1 million people, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care nonprofit. They are not eligible for most public benefit programs, even though many have jobs and pay taxes.
根据非营利医疗保健机构凯撒家庭基金会的数据，2020年，非法居住在美国的人约占全美人口的7%，约为2210万人。他们没有资格参加大多数公共福利项目，尽管许多人有工作并纳税。
In California, Republicans and conservative groups have opposed expanding health care to immigrants living in the country illegally. Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said offering free health care will make California “a magnet for those who are not legally authorized to enter the country.”
在加州，共和党人和保守派团体反对将医疗保健扩大到非法居住在美国的移民。霍华德·贾维斯纳税人协会主席乔恩·库帕尔说，提供免费医疗将使加州成为“吸引那些未经合法授权进入美国的人的一块磁铁”。