California will become the largest state in the nation to provide health care to all children, regardless of their immigration status, under a new law signed Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The Health for All Kids Act, Senate Bill 4, was sponsored by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Long Beach. It opens up health coverage to undocumented immigrants by expanding Medi-Cal coverage, making California the state with the largest immigrant population to implement such a policy.

New York, Illinois, Washington, Massachusetts and Washington D.C. have also implemented similar policies.

“When I began the effort to expand health care coverage to undocumented Californians, many people said it couldn’t get done,” said Lara in a statement Friday. “Just a year later, we are covering all undocumented children, becoming the largest state to do so. This is a tremendous victory that will send a message across the country that says compassion should always trump bigotry when we’re talking about our immigrant population.”

Lara said there is more work to be done to cover those who remain without insurance, but he called gaining the governor’s signature a major victory.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, the state is home to about 2.67 million undocumented immigrants as of 2013. Getting an exact number is challenging because no official tallies exist.

Almost a quarter of the nation’s undocumented immigrants reside in California, where they make up slightly more than 6 percent of the state’s population, according to the policy institute.

The Health for All Kids Act will expand Medi-Cal eligibility through a $40 million allocation in this term and $132 million in funding each subsequent year.

An estimated 170,000 undocumented kids will now be eligible for health care coverage under Medi-Cal, beginning in May, according to Lara’s office.

The bill is also the first in a series of proposed legislation including Senate Bill 10, which will advance next year and includes a provision to cover adults through a capped enrollment program. It also requests a federal waiver so immigrants can purchase health care through Covered California.

Friday’s announcement was a “modest but important step” in ensuring health coverage for all California residents, Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition, said Friday.


“We’re pleased by the signing of this bill,” he said.

“It caps a year of progress toward a more inclusive health care system at both the state and county levels.”

Calls to We The People Rising, a conservative, grass-roots organization that opposed the bill, were not returned Friday.