{"id":397656,"date":"2026-01-01T23:02:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/?p=397656"},"modified":"2026-03-03T22:16:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:16:37","slug":"benefits-changes-to-expect-jan-1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/blog\/2026\/01\/01\/benefits-changes-to-expect-jan-1-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefits Changes to Expect Jan. 1, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph\"><span class=\"normaltextrun\">Jan. 1, 2026: As a result of the state\u2019s budget bill passed in June 2025 and the federal government\u2019s H.R. 1, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law in July 2025, changes to Medi-Cal and CalFresh eligibility rules will begin to take effect on various dates starting Jan. 1, 2026. The new rules will include additional eligibility requirements, reduced benefits or potential ineligibility for certain populations. Both current recipients and future applicants will be impacted by these changes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Effective Jan. 1, 2026<strong>, undocumented adult immigrants will no longer be eligible to apply for full scope Medi-Cal,<\/strong> only limited scope. Limited Scope Medi-Cal provides coverage for specific, essential health needs, primarily <strong class=\"Yjhzub\" data-processed=\"true\">emergency services and pregnancy-related care<\/strong>, for individuals who meet most Medi-Cal eligibility requirements.<\/li>\n<li>Also starting <span class=\"\" data-huuid=\"15171048496933556158\">\u00a0Jan. 1, 2026, <strong>Medi-Cal reinstates asset limits for certain programs<\/strong>, setting them at $130,000 for an individual, plus $65,000 for each additional household member, up to ten people. <\/span><span class=\"\" data-huuid=\"15171048496933554421\">This affects non-expansion programs for the Aged, Blind, Disabled, Long-Term Care, and those with a Share of Cost.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"\" data-huuid=\"15171048496933552684\">For new applicants, assets must be reported now;\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"\" data-huuid=\"15171048496933555043\">current beneficiaries report at their next annual renewal after Jan 1, 2026, with key exempt assets including your home, one vehicle, household goods, and retirement accounts.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"\" data-huuid=\"15171048496933555665\"><span class=\"pjBG2e\" data-cid=\"8f3a074d-a883-42e4-a44a-2e23d6edfecd\"><span class=\"UV3uM\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please visit the following State of California website for more information on these and other benefit changes that are slated to take place over the next few years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a class=\"ext\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dhcs.ca.gov\/Medi-Cal\/Pages\/changes.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-extlink=\"\" aria-describedby=\"audioeye_new_window_message\"><span class=\"normaltextrun\"><strong>Medi-Cal Changes per California Department of Health Care Services<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><strong><a class=\"ext\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cdss.ca.gov\/benefits-services\/food-nutrition-services\/calfresh\/frequently-asked-questions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-extlink=\"\" aria-describedby=\"audioeye_new_window_message\">CalFresh Changes per California Department of Social Services<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 1, 2026: As a result of the state\u2019s budget bill passed in June 2025 and the federal government\u2019s H.R. 1, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 04:11:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacounty.gov\/human-services-agency\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}