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The California Senate voted on Tuesday to allow unauthorized immigrants to buy health insurance on a state exchange created under the U.S. Affordable Care Act, a measure that would make the state the first to offer that kind of coverage. The bill would not provide a subsidy for undocumented immigrants to buy health insurance, unlike U.S. citizens and legal residents who can qualify for such assistance based on their incomes, said Jesse Melgar, a spokesman for the bill's author, Senator Ricardo Lara. (Dobuzinskis, 6/2)

A first-in-the-nation bill aimed at expanding health care for illegal immigrants sailed through the Senate on Tuesday even as some lawmakers acknowledged that thousands of legal residents are having to struggle to access health care through the state's Medi-Cal program. (Seipel, 6/2)

The state Senate approved a hotly debated measure Tuesday that would provide healthcare coverage to many immigrants who reside in California illegally. Lawmakers also gave the first full-house approval to bills that would raise the state smoking age to 21, prohibit the use of electronic cigarettes in the same way smoking is banned, provide more public grants for university students and automatically register to vote all eligible residents who obtain a driver's license. The healthcare proposal would allow up to 240,000 immigrants younger than 19 to enroll in Medi-Cal, California's health program for the poor, and an unspecified number of low-income adult immigrants to receive the same services from a separate program. (McGreevy and Mason, 6/2)

A proposal to expand health care to Californians in the country illegally cleared the Senate on Tuesday, passing on a 28-11 vote and heading to the Assembly. Senate Bill 4 would allow undocumented immigrants to purchase health insurance on the state exchange, pending a federal waiver, and enroll eligible people under the age of 19 in Medi-Cal, the state’s insurance program for the poor. A capped number of undocumented adults would also be allowed participate, if additional funding is appropriated in the state budget. (Koseff, 6/2)

The California Senate on Tuesday approved legislation that would make the state the first in the nation to extend health coverage to children who are in the country illegally and seek federal authorization to sell private insurance to immigrants without documentation. (Lin, 6/2)

With 12.3 million Californians receiving Medi-Cal, the program now serves almost a third of the state's population. Lawmakers such as Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, and Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, say that the best way to attract more Medi-Cal providers is by restoring a 10 percent reimbursement rate cut the Legislature approved in 2011 when the state was still swimming in red ink. On Tuesday morning, a coalition of doctors, nurses, hospitals, health clinics, dentists, insurers and health care workers demanded as much during a rally on the state Capitol steps. (Seipel, 6/2)