In 2027, Justice in Aging will advocate to advance the following policies. These priorities advance economic security, housing stability, health care access, and community living for low-income older adults and people with disabilities, while supporting the goals of California’s Master Plan for Aging.
As the state with the largest population of older adults living in poverty, California has both an urgent need and a unique opportunity to advance innovative policies that improve the lives of older adults and people with disabilities. Because California often leads the nation in developing and implementing progressive policies, these efforts can improve the lives of millions of Californians while serving as models for other states.
Health and Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS)
Eliminate the Medi-Cal Asset Limit
Currently, older adults and people with disabilities are the only population subject to an asset limit in Medi-Cal. These rules create confusion, discourage savings, and can result in otherwise eligible individuals losing access to Medi-Cal.
This proposal would eliminate the Medi-Cal asset limit for older adults and people with disabilities as a condition of eligibility. California previously eliminated the asset test for two years before reinstating it in 2026. Removing the asset test would align eligibility rules across all Medi-Cal populations, simplify enrollment and renewals, and reduce administrative burdens for applicants, counties, and the state. It would also allow individuals to maintain modest savings for emergencies, housing stability, and other essential expenses without jeopardizing access to health care and LTSS under Medi-Cal.
Reform the Medi-Cal Share of Cost Program
California’s Medi-Cal Share of Cost program effectively requires many older adults and people with disabilities to live on approximately $600 per month before qualifying for services, forcing individuals to choose between health care and basic necessities such as housing and food.
This proposal would implement the reform approved in the FY 2022-23 budget to increase the Maintenance Need Income Level to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. By modernizing the Share of Cost program, California can reduce deep poverty among older adults and people with disabilities and ensure that access to health care is not conditioned on extreme financial hardship.
Advance the Roadmap to Home Care for All Californians
Most older adults and people with disabilities prefer to remain in their homes and communities, yet California’s home- and community-based services (HCBS) system is fragmented across multiple programs with different eligibility rules and application processes. Many individuals face long waitlists for services, while others enter hospitals or nursing facilities because necessary home-based support is unavailable or difficult to access.
The Roadmap to Home Care for All Californians would create a more accessible and equitable HCBS system by making services available statewide through a state plan benefit without waitlists. The proposal would also reduce financial barriers to Medi-Cal, protect housing during temporary nursing home stays, strengthen assisted living protections, improve transitions from institutions back to the community, and invest in the HCBS workforce and provider network. Together, these reforms would help more Californians age with dignity in the settings of their choice while reducing unnecessary institutionalization.
Strengthen Consumer Protections for CalAIM Community Supports
CalAIM Community Supports are optional services provided through Medi-Cal managed care plans that help address housing, health, and long-term care needs. Under current law, plans may elect to discontinue Community Supports, leaving members vulnerable to sudden interruptions in care. Members currently receive only 30 days’ notice when a service is discontinued, with no protections to help them continue receiving that support through another plan. For housing-related services, such as Assisted Living Facility Transition Support, losing the service can have serious consequences, including homelessness, hospitalization, or a return to a nursing home that the benefit helped them leave.
This proposal would strengthen consumer protections by improving notice requirements, ensuring continuity of care, and establishing stronger transition planning when services are discontinued. It would also require greater transparency and oversight when managed care plans end Community Supports and create more consistent standards for renewing ongoing services. These reforms would help prevent disruptions that can lead to homelessness, hospitalization, or unnecessary nursing facility placement.
Preserve State funded Medi-Cal Coverage for Immigrants
Recent federal restrictions have caused about 70,000 lawfully present immigrants, including many humanitarian immigrants such as refugees and asylees, to lose eligibility for federally funded Medicaid. Although California has committed to providing state-funded Medi-Cal coverage for affected individuals, that commitment is currently scheduled to end on July 1, 2027.
This proposal would preserve state-funded Medi-Cal coverage for immigrants who have lost access to federal health coverage. Maintaining coverage will help ensure continued access to preventive and ongoing care, improve health outcomes, and reduce costly emergency interventions. For many older immigrants affected by these federal changes, state-funded Medi-Cal represents the only viable pathway to affordable health coverage because new federal restrictions also limit access to Medicare.
Housing
Establish a Shallow Rental Subsidy Program
Older adults are the fastest-growing population experiencing homelessness in California, and nearly half of unhoused Californians are age 50 or older. Many older adults and people with disabilities live on fixed incomes and struggle to keep pace with rising housing costs, putting them at increased risk of displacement and homelessness.
This proposal would establish a statewide shallow rental subsidy program for older adults and people with disabilities, providing ongoing rental assistance to help households remain stably housed. The proposal builds on successful local programs that have demonstrated that modest, targeted subsidies can effectively prevent homelessness, improve housing stability and health outcomes, and reduce reliance on more expensive emergency shelter and crisis-response systems. Investing in homelessness prevention is one of the most cost-effective ways to help older adults remain safely housed in their communities.
Economic Security
Lift Older Adults & People with Disabilities out of Poverty
The devastating cuts to the State Supplementary Payment (SSP) made during the Great Recession pushed over one million seniors and people with disabilities into poverty and hardship. Grant increases in recent years have reduced the gap, but SSI/SSP individual grants have still not caught up to their pre-recession level when adjusted for inflation. And because there is no automatic annual cost-of-living adjustment to the SSP, California’s SSI beneficiaries (over half of whom are 65 or older) depend on state leaders every year to provide a grant increase to simply maintain their current standard of living in the face of inflation.
This proposal would establish an ongoing cost-of-living adjustment for the SSP and increase the combined SSI/SSP grants to at least the federal poverty level as a down payment toward the Elder Economic Index, which more accurately reflects the true cost of living for older adults and people with disabilities in California. These reforms would help beneficiaries keep pace with rising costs for housing, food, health care, and transportation while reducing poverty among Californians living on fixed incomes.
