Imagine if you told your kid they could have dessert, but only if they ate all of their vegetables. Then, as you looked away, they quietly slipped their spinach to the dog before reaching out to receive dessert. Here you have what California is doing with Medicaid funding, and the whole country is paying for it.

For Maria Paredez, the slashing of Medicaid funding is no political football, or some abstract argument emanating from Republicans in Congress about the size of government. It hits her where she lives: a small house in a small town in Tulare County, where she struggles to get from one month to the next.

The history of Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program and the largest and most expansive such program in the country, provides this crucial background. It shows how Medicaid is the byproduct of ...

There are still many unknowns about what cuts, if any, could happen to Medi-Cal, which covers roughly 15 million people in the state.

Medicaid is supposed to be a safety net for the poor, but California has turned it into welfare for the wealthy. In California, literally no amount of wealth now disqualifies someone from eligibility. Last year, the state eliminated its asset test for Medicaid, which the state refers to as Medi-Cal.

Advocates and providers in the state say they anticipate dire repercussions for reproductive health-care access if Medicaid ends up on the Republican-controlled Congress’ chopping block.

Millions of Americans could lose their Medicaid coverage under Republican plans to vastly cut federal spending. Lawmakers on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, are mulling over changes to the health care insurance program that benefits more than 70 million Americans nationwide.