Latest news with #Citrin
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Californians back health care funds for undocumented immigrants despite budget strain, poll finds
SACRAMENTO, California — A slim majority of California voters support the state's coverage of undocumented residents' health care — but not unconditionally — according to a new poll, offering rare insight into public opinion on a program facing fierce scrutiny from Washington and growing calls to cut back amid a budget shortfall. The first-of-its-kind POLITICO-UC Berkeley Citrin Center survey shows 21 percent of voters believe California should continue to offer Medicaid to undocumented immigrants, even if it means the state is forced to make cuts elsewhere. Another 32 percent said the state should continue the program but prioritize people in the country legally if budget cuts are necessary. Nearly a third (31 percent) said the state never should have opened up its Medicaid coverage to undocumented immigrants, especially working-age adults, while 17 percent believe the state should partially or fully reverse such coverage. The findings could offer direction for state lawmakers as they grapple with higher-than-expected costs in deciding on the next budget, said Jack Citrin, a longtime UC Berkeley political science professor. 'There's broad support for the state's Medicaid program for undocumented immigrants,' Citrin told POLITICO, adding, though, that there was some 'nuance.' 'I think there will be resistance among the state government to cutting Medicaid, but if they have to, presumably they might start changing which undocumented get access, maybe limiting it to children and elderly people, rather than everyone, … tinkering with that.' California has been offering Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, to everyone who qualifies in the state — regardless of immigration status — since January 2024, as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's pledge to bring the state closer to universal health care coverage. His predecessor, Jerry Brown, began allowing undocumented children onto Medi-Cal in 2016, and Newsom slowly expanded the age range until everyone qualified after he took office in 2019. But the program has more recently become a political punching bag in conservative media, with MAGA figures arguing it shows the Democratic majority in Sacramento prioritizing immigrants over citizens. That's been exacerbated by the larger-than-expected price tag for the program, which has greatly contributed to a multibillion-dollar shortfall for Medi-Cal. It's also made California a political target for the Trump administration as well as Republicans within the state amid a broader push for government cost-cutting and a crackdown on migration. Democratic leaders, meanwhile, point to other factors driving the budget hole, such as higher pharmaceutical prices and an aging population. The survey findings also show major differences between general voters and a separate group of policy influencers that was polled. The influencer group was far more likely to support the undocumented program, with 31 percent saying it should be continued even if it meant cuts elsewhere, and 45 percent supporting the program but wanting to prioritize people in the country legally if budget cuts were needed Only 11 percent said the state should have never expanded Medicaid to undocumented residents — 20 percentage points less than the general voting population. Among the voters, there were further divides between different demographic groups. Democrats were the most likely to support the program (77 percent generally favorable, though some with conditions) compared to Republicans — 58 percent of whom said Medicaid should never have covered the undocumented population. Citrin said independent voters appeared to be caught in between, though they tended to skew more toward the Republican view, and that's notable because independents are 'a large group in California and they're a growing group.' Yet more differences emerged among ethnic groups, with Hispanic and Asian voters the most supportive of maintaining the program, even if it meant making cuts elsewhere, both at 27 percent, compared to 17 percent for white, 14 percent for Black and 20 percent for other voters. 'Hispanics and Asians are the most: the largest recent immigrant groups,' Citrin said. '[Even if] they themselves are not undocumented, it may be that they know people who are, or they're more sympathetic.' The survey was conducted on the platform from April 1 to 14 among 1,025 California registered voters and 718 influencers. To generate the influencer sample, the survey was emailed to a list of people, including subscribers to California Playbook, California Climate and POLITICO Pro who work in the state. Respondents in that sample included lawmakers and staffers in the state Legislature and the federal government. Verasight provided the registered voter sample, which included randomly sampled voters from the California voter file. The modeled error estimate for the voter survey is plus-or-minus five percentage points. It is a particularly precarious time for the public insurance program. California had to borrow $3.4 billion in March to fix a short-term cash flow problem and appropriate an extra $2.8 billion earlier this month to make ends meet through June. Overall, Medi-Cal this year is running about 7.5 percent higher than it was originally budgeted for last year. 'Providing health care to people is one of the most important and most popular things the government does,' said Amanda McAllister-Wallner, the executive director of the health care consumer advocacy group Health Access. 'It's something that's worth the investment.' Those state budget pressures come as Congress lays out a plan to cut potentially hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal Medicaid budget over the next decade, which could lead to a full-scale restructuring of the program. 'The cost of the program is more than anticipated. It is unsustainable,' Erika Li, the state finance department's chief deputy director of budgets, testified at a recent hearing in the state Legislature. 'We are looking at ways to curb those costs.' Li's comments were the strongest indication yet that the Newsom administration is considering big changes or cuts to the health insurance program, which could be proposed to rein in costs during the governor's May budget revision. As state and national pressure squeezes the Medi-Cal budget, the expansion to undocumented residents has drawn extra scrutiny, with Republicans calling to scale the benefits back and asking the federal government to audit the program. Legislative Democrats, however, strongly oppose any solution that could unwind Medi-Cal for people without legal status and have instead been pushing for ways to tamp down on the cost of health care across the board. Several things have contributed to the climbing caseload on Medi-Cal over the past few years, in addition to opening up the program to undocumented people. Extra flexibilities introduced during the Covid pandemic have also made it so that fewer people get kicked out due to paperwork issues. The state also changed a law in 2024 to remove some financial barriers for seniors to qualify, meaning overall, there are more people on Medi-Cal. With the overall cost of care on the rise, that also means bigger bills. Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a family physician, said last week during a budget hearing that she was 'outraged' by the way Republicans were talking about undocumented coverage. 'People need to wake up and understand that health care is important, taking care of the vulnerable is important,' Bains said. 'The talking point that covering undocumented people leads to increased health care costs is complete B.S.'
Politico
19-04-2025
- Health
- Politico
Californians back health care funds for undocumented immigrants despite budget strain, poll finds
SACRAMENTO, California — A slim majority of California voters support the state's coverage of undocumented residents' health care — but not unconditionally — according to a new poll, offering rare insight into public opinion on a program facing fierce scrutiny from Washington and growing calls to cut back amid a budget shortfall. The first-of-its-kind POLITICO-UC Berkeley Citrin Center survey shows 21 percent of voters believe California should continue to offer Medicaid to undocumented immigrants, even if it means the state is forced to make cuts elsewhere. Another 32 percent said the state should continue the program but prioritize people in the country legally if budget cuts are necessary. Nearly a third (31 percent) said the state never should have opened up its Medicaid coverage to undocumented immigrants, especially working-age adults, while 17 percent believe the state should partially or fully reverse such coverage. The findings could offer direction for state lawmakers as they grapple with higher-than-expected costs in deciding on the next budget, said Jack Citrin, a longtime UC Berkeley political science professor. 'There's broad support for the state's Medicaid program for undocumented immigrants,' Citrin told POLITICO, adding, though, that there was some 'nuance.' 'I think there will be resistance among the state government to cutting Medicaid, but if they have to, presumably they might start changing which undocumented get access, maybe limiting it to children and elderly people, rather than everyone, … tinkering with that.' California has been offering Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, to everyone who qualifies in the state — regardless of immigration status — since January 2024, as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's pledge to bring the state closer to universal health care coverage. His predecessor, Jerry Brown, began allowing undocumented children onto Medi-Cal in 2016, and Newsom slowly expanded the age range until everyone qualified after he took office in 2019. But the program has more recently become a political punching bag in conservative media, with MAGA figures arguing it shows the Democratic majority in Sacramento prioritizing immigrants over citizens. That's been exacerbated by the larger-than-expected price tag for the program, which has greatly contributed to a multibillion-dollar shortfall for Medi-Cal. It's also made California a political target for the Trump administration as well as Republicans within the state amid a broader push for government cost-cutting and a crackdown on migration. Democratic leaders, meanwhile, point to other factors driving the budget hole, such as higher pharmaceutical prices and an aging population. The survey findings also show major differences between general voters and a separate group of policy influencers that was polled. The influencer group was far more likely to support the undocumented program, with 31 percent saying it should be continued even if it meant cuts elsewhere, and 45 percent supporting the program but wanting to prioritize people in the country legally if budget cuts were needed Only 11 percent said the state should have never expanded Medicaid to undocumented residents — 20 percentage points less than the general voting population. Among the voters, there were further divides between different demographic groups. Democrats were the most likely to support the program (77 percent generally favorable, though some with conditions) compared to Republicans — 58 percent of whom said Medicaid should never have covered the undocumented population. Citrin said independent voters appeared to be caught in between, though they tended to skew more toward the Republican view, and that's notable because independents are 'a large group in California and they're a growing group.' Yet more differences emerged among ethnic groups, with Hispanic and Asian voters the most supportive of maintaining the program, even if it meant making cuts elsewhere, both at 27 percent, compared to 17 percent for white, 14 percent for Black and 20 percent for other voters. 'Hispanics and Asians are the most: the largest recent immigrant groups,' Citrin said. '[Even if] they themselves are not undocumented, it may be that they know people who are, or they're more sympathetic.' The survey was conducted on the platform from April 1 to 14 among 1,025 California registered voters and 718 influencers. To generate the influencer sample, the survey was emailed to a list of people, including subscribers to California Playbook, California Climate and POLITICO Pro who work in the state. Respondents in that sample included lawmakers and staffers in the state Legislature and the federal government. Verasight provided the registered voter sample, which included randomly sampled voters from the California voter file. The modeled error estimate for the voter survey is plus-or-minus five percentage points. It is a particularly precarious time for the public insurance program. California had to borrow $3.4 billion in March to fix a short-term cash flow problem and appropriate an extra $2.8 billion earlier this month to make ends meet through June. Overall, Medi-Cal this year is running about 7.5 percent higher than it was originally budgeted for last year. 'Providing health care to people is one of the most important and most popular things the government does,' said Amanda McAllister-Wallner, the executive director of the health care consumer advocacy group Health Access. 'It's something that's worth the investment.' Those state budget pressures come as Congress lays out a plan to cut potentially hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal Medicaid budget over the next decade, which could lead to a full-scale restructuring of the program. 'The cost of the program is more than anticipated. It is unsustainable,' Erika Li, the state finance department's chief deputy director of budgets, testified at a recent hearing in the state Legislature. 'We are looking at ways to curb those costs.' Li's comments were the strongest indication yet that the Newsom administration is considering big changes or cuts to the health insurance program, which could be proposed to rein in costs during the governor's May budget revision. As state and national pressure squeezes the Medi-Cal budget, the expansion to undocumented residents has drawn extra scrutiny, with Republicans calling to scale the benefits back and asking the federal government to audit the program . Legislative Democrats, however, strongly oppose any solution that could unwind Medi-Cal for people without legal status and have instead been pushing for ways to tamp down on the cost of health care across the board. Several things have contributed to the climbing caseload on Medi-Cal over the past few years, in addition to opening up the program to undocumented people. Extra flexibilities introduced during the Covid pandemic have also made it so that fewer people get kicked out due to paperwork issues. The state also changed a law in 2024 to remove some financial barriers for seniors to qualify, meaning overall, there are more people on Medi-Cal. With the overall cost of care on the rise, that also means bigger bills. Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a family physician, said last week during a budget hearing that she was 'outraged' by the way Republicans were talking about undocumented coverage. 'People need to wake up and understand that health care is important, taking care of the vulnerable is important,' Bains said. 'The talking point that covering undocumented people leads to increased health care costs is complete B.S.'
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How the L.A. Wildfires Pushed the City's Restaurants to the Brink
In 2016, The New York Times signaled its intent to stretch its culinary reach nationwide, with its chief critic Pete Wells looking to evaluate restaurants outside of the five boroughs. His first review took him all the way to the other coast, to Santa Monica, where he gave Bryant Ng and Kim Luu-Ng's Southeast Asian-inspired Cassia a three-star rave. It was yet another feather in the cap of the ascendant L.A. food scene that had become one of the most exciting restaurant cities in the world during the 2010s. But since then, battered by the pandemic, entertainment industry strikes, and January's devastating wildfires, the region's restaurant scene is being pushed to the brink. Cassia has announced it has all been too much to endure; it will shutter this weekend. There may be more closures to come. When the Palisades Fire ignited on January 7, chef Dave Beran was running service at his new restaurant Seline in Santa Monica. That night, an eerie mood hung over the tasting-menu spot as lights flickered from the severe wind and guests checked their phones constantly to see the fire spreading through the neighboring L.A. enclave. The restaurant would shut down for days after, and air quality in Santa Monica remained poor for a week. Seline—which had been open only six weeks when the fires started—along with Beran's more casual Pasjoli nearby, took a big hit when they did reopen. 'At Seline, week five was our busiest week, but for six, total revenue of the whole week was less than the Saturday prior,' Beran says. More from Robb Report A Reimagined Pierre Koenig Home in L.A. Is Up for Grabs at $5.8 Million Inside the Windsor, the Private Terminal at London's Heathrow Airport Star Moves: Selena Gomez and John Legend Pick Up New Digs, Keke Palmer Sheds Her Starter Home A little further north in Santa Monica, where Josiah Citrin's Michelin-star Citrin and two-star Mélisse share a building, the level of business was similarly dire. 'The first three weeks of January with the fires are the worst I've ever seen,' says Citrin, who has operated at the location for 25 years. A.O.C. in the affluent west L.A. enclave of Brentwood was shut down for four days as evacuation warnings edged closer and smoke from the nearby blaze filled the restaurant. But restaurateur Caroline Styne says they also saw a big hit to business in the restaurant's West Hollywood location, too. 'I've been talking to other restaurateurs, and everybody has been going through it,' she says. 'Especially in that first two weeks, we were all really struggling.' Over on the east side of L.A., closer to where the Eaton Fire swept through Altadena claiming lives and homes, the award-winning restaurant Bar Chelou in Pasadena announced it would close. 'We braced ourselves for a drop, knowing we would see a 20 to 30 percent decrease in business,' chef-owner Doug Rankin told Eater LA. 'But in reality, it was closer to 50 percent. I love this city so much and thought we'd be here forever. But you have to read the writing on the wall and cut your losses.' Beran has been hearing the same thing in his conversations. 'I've talked to four or five different friends who were, right after the fires, saying if this doesn't improve in the next four to five weeks, they were talking about the potential of having to close,' he says. While the locals are starting to come back out again, tourism has taken a hit. 'When the world outside sees L.A. on fire, they're not hopping on planes to go here.' Beran says. So the displacement of the neighboring community and the lack of tourists is taking its toll. 'It's a guess, but around 70 percent of our audience is flying in or coming from the Palisades,' he says. Citrin has been able to fill the tables at his intimate tasting-menu spot Mélisse, but with fewer covers than normal as tables of four just sat two. And he's still seeing the lag of tourists. For a Michelin two-star restaurant like his, when he opens bookings, they're usually filled first by people outside of the region who are planning ahead for trips, then get filled closer to the dates by Angelenos. 'I look at the reservations for March, which we opened February 1, and it's not filling up like it usually does,' Citrin says. 'And that's the tourist part.' The predicament L.A. restaurants are in now can't be explained by the fires alone. You have to go back to the Hollywood strikes that still hang over the local economy nearly two years later. The prolonged work stoppages by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild took, by some estimates, up to a $6 billion bite out of the economy nationwide, with most of the burden shouldered by California. 'In the first quarter of 2023 that's when we felt like diners are going out again, our numbers are up, and we're back to being profitable—and then the writer's strike happens and it bottoms our entire business out,' Styne says. 'And we've been treading water now for almost two years.' There was hope that once the strikes ended, business would bounce right back. But productions have been slow to resume in the L.A. area, meaning that people all up and down the entertainment industry—from actors to editors to gaffers to production assistants—have less discretionary income. And it also means just fewer meetings between power players at local restaurants. 'There's a huge fear it will never come back to what it was,' Styne says. 'I don't think people realize how restaurants were affected as a result of the entertainment strikes,' Beran says. 'Even us trying to raise money for Seline was a huge challenge, because as soon as the strikes happened a lot of people said, 'We don't know how long these will go, so we need to stay liquid and keep cash reserves.'' So in the wake of the fires, restaurants couldn't afford to sit fallow for an extended period of time, because many had exhausted cash reserves. But getting locals to dine has been a delicate dance, as many restaurateurs know regulars who lost their homes in the fires. 'It's difficult to complain about because what we're losing from clientele, that clientele has lost so much more, so you feel guilty about talking about it,' Beran says. That initial shock and trauma in the wake of the fires is why the entertainment industry postponed awards season events and Angelenos felt awkward about going out and having a good time. It almost led to the annual DineLA Restaurant Week to be canceled. But restaurateurs realized they literally couldn't afford lose that revenue driver after such a terrible start to the year. 'We were all trying to be sensitive to the issue,' Citrin says about conversations surrounding the cancellation of DineLA. 'But then we said, 'You can't do that right now, because if you do that, it's going to be the worst bloodbath.' Restaurateurs banded together to push for DineLA to go through starting January 24, with restaurants across the city offering prix-fixe menus while receiving marketing support from the tourism board. The event appears to have tapped into Angelenos' desire to get back out weeks after the fires. 'DineLA was busy, one of the busiest we've seen,' Citrin says. 'Banc of California matched money to donate to fire relief, the tourism board contributed to fire relief and it got people going out.' The DineLA organization reports that it raised $100,000 for fire relief during the event, and the week was so successful that many restaurants were extending their menus and discounts for additional weeks. What comes next for L.A. restaurants, even the most seasoned operators aren't quite sure. Citrin has been part of the L.A. scene for decades and remembers previous shocks to the city that date back to the '90s, including the L.A. Riots and the Northridge Earthquake. 'We've been through a lot here, we're a resilient city,' Citrin says. 'Restaurants will be here, restaurants won't, you just try to fight the fight—that's all I can do and use all of my experience to keep it going.' Best of Robb Report Why a Heritage Turkey Is the Best Thanksgiving Bird—and How to Get One 9 Stellar West Coast Pinot Noirs to Drink Right Now The 10 Best Wines to Pair With Steak, From Cabernet to Malbec Click here to read the full article.
