In 2020, Californians are about to feel the weight of the Democrat legislature's never-ending quest to find expensive new ways to micromanage every aspect of daily life, from increased rent control to ending "lunch shaming" to mandatory clean rooms for nursing mothers in the workplace. One of the more consequential laws, though, is especially geared to giving more California taxpayer money to illegal aliens.

Starting with the New Year, California is giving illegal aliens between the ages of 19 and 26 full access to Medi-Cal (its taxpayer-funded low-income health insurance program). Before 2020, illegal aliens under 19 were already receiving full benefits under the program (preventive and primary care), while young adults had only free emergency room care. The expanded program is set to cost taxpayers another $98 million in 2020.

The point of this Medi-Cal expansion is to provide health insurance parity between legal residents and illegal aliens living in California. Currently, a UCLA "health policy brief" states, "[S]ignificant disparities exist in access to health care between this group and their documented counterparts."

What the Democrats ignore is that one of these disparities is the whole "benefit-burden" thing. Those promoting illegal residency in the U.S. argue that illegal aliens pay taxes in the form of sales taxes and some property taxes. However, their illegal status means that the number paying income tax is questionable. Still, one 2017 study claimed that illegal aliens contributed an estimated $3 billion in state and local taxes to the California government.

Three billion sounds like a lot until you start looking at what those same illegal aliens cost California. The National Economics Editorial, an openly conservative economic analysis site, estimated in 2017 that illegal aliens already cost California taxpayers more than $30 billion every year, some of it in hard costs (education and health care) and some of it in less tangible lost money costs (remittances and crime).

When it comes to potential Medi-Cal costs for the states roughly 2.5 million illegal aliens, as the UCLA study says, "the majority of undocumented residents [sic] are low-income and nonelderly adults." And while the study notes that the young adult cohort is just 7% of the illegal alien population, the 26- to 44-year-old age group is 56% of that population. How long before the California Legislature decides to extend taxpayer health care benefits to that group, too?

As an aside, the Medi-Cal goodies basket isn't the only hit on California taxpayers this year when it comes to handouts to illegal aliens. Another law going into effect in 2020 (S.B. 354) gives even more education grants to illegal aliens who came to California as children. The DREAM Loan Program allows these kids to apply for grants if they are enrolled in a public university in pursuit of professional or graduate degrees.

Even as California entices illegal aliens with more taxpayer-funded benefits, it's losing its actual taxpayers:

According to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released on Monday, approximately 203,000 people moved out of California between 2018 and 2019 — with the bulk of them heading to other western states like Arizona, Texas and Colorado, where the cost of life is less pricey.

California once was America's "golden state." Now that it's a one-party Democrat state, that gold is rapidly turning to dross.