Updated June 30, 2026 — based on the final, signed state budget.
If you’ve spent any time in IHSS Facebook groups or community forums this year, you’ve probably seen warnings that California is planning to slash In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) hours, cut backup care, or wind the program down altogether. That worry is understandable. Budget season produces a lot of fast-moving information, and screenshots of proposals tend to keep circulating long after those proposals have already been decided one way or the other.
Here is the short version: California’s final 2026-27 state budget, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on June 29, 2026, rejected the IHSS cuts his administration had proposed earlier in the year. Funding for the program is going up, not down, and IHSS is projected to serve more Californians in 2026-27 than ever before.
That doesn’t mean nothing was ever on the table, though, which is exactly why the rumors started. Here’s how the year actually played out.
The short version: California's final 2026-27 state budget, signed June 29, 2026, rejected the IHSS cuts proposed earlier in the year. Funding for the program is going up, and IHSS is projected to serve more Californians than ever before.
Why the Rumors Started
Every January, California’s governor releases a proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. It’s a starting point for months of negotiation with the Legislature, not a final decision. Governor Newsom’s January 2026 proposal for IHSS included three cost-saving changes:
- Eliminating the IHSS Permanent Backup Provider Program, which connects recipients with a substitute caregiver when their regular provider is unavailable, for an estimated $3.5 million in annual savings.
- Linking IHSS termination directly to Medi-Cal termination, so that someone who lost Medi-Cal coverage would also immediately lose IHSS, rather than continuing temporarily on the IHSS Residual program during the gap. This was projected to save about $86 million.
- Shifting the state’s share of costs tied to growth in approved care hours onto individual counties, starting in 2027-28. This was projected to save about $233.6 million in its first year, growing toward $805 million annually by 2029-30.
Disability and aging advocacy organizations, including Disability Rights California and Justice in Aging, opposed all three proposals. They warned in particular that shifting hours-growth costs to counties could pressure county IHSS programs to authorize fewer hours for individual recipients. When the Governor’s May Revision, released May 14, 2026, kept all three proposals in place, advocates raised the alarm again. It’s that stretch of the process — proposal, pushback, revision, more pushback — that likely produced much of what’s still being shared in caregiver groups today.
What the Final Budget Actually Did
The Legislature’s June budget proposal and the final three-way agreement between Governor Newsom, Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas rejected the Governor’s proposed IHSS cuts. According to the Assembly Budget Committee’s floor report and independent legislative budget trackers, the enacted plan keeps the IHSS Backup Provider System in place and does not adopt the proposed Medi-Cal-linked termination change or the 2026-27 county cost shift.
The Legislature passed the implementing budget bills on June 29, 2026, and Governor Newsom signed the package the same day. In his signing message, the Governor described the 2026-27 budget as balanced, with no deficit projected for either 2026-27 or 2027-28, while preserving the state’s safety-net programs.
The Numbers
According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, IHSS is projected to serve an average monthly caseload of about 875,344 recipients in 2026-27 — up from roughly 430,000 in 2008-09 and 586,000 in 2019-20. Total program funding (combining federal, state, and county dollars) was projected at approximately $33.4 billion for 2026-27 in the Governor’s budget, including about $12.5 billion in state General Fund support. Both figures represent an increase of roughly 10 percent over the prior year, driven mainly by caseload growth.
Why IHSS Keeps Growing Instead of Shrinking
IHSS allows people with disabilities and older adults to receive personal care and household help in their own homes rather than in a nursing facility or other institutional setting. That home-based model is generally far less expensive for the state than institutional care, which is a major reason the program has continued to expand even in difficult budget years. It’s also rooted in longstanding disability-rights principles favoring community-based living over institutionalization, reflected in the Olmstead decision and California’s own Master Plan for Aging.
Why the Confusion Keeps Coming Back: IHSS Is a Medi-Cal Benefit
IHSS is legally structured as a Medi-Cal benefit, which means recipients generally must maintain Medi-Cal eligibility to keep their IHSS hours. That link is exactly why so many alarming federal and state Medi-Cal headlines — asset-limit changes, immigration-status restrictions tied to the federal H.R. 1 law, eligibility redetermination rules — get shared, sometimes inaccurately, as “IHSS cuts.” Some Medi-Cal-side changes did move forward in this year’s final budget; others were delayed, softened, or rejected entirely. If you want to know whether a specific change affects your hours, the most reliable move is to check directly with your county IHSS office or a legal aid organization such as Disability Rights California, rather than relying on a forwarded post.
What to Watch Going Forward
This year’s outcome is good news, but it isn’t necessarily the end of the conversation. Budget trackers note that lawmakers intend to keep working to reduce, delay, or eliminate other enacted cuts as conditions allow in 2027, and California still faces a longer-term structural budget gap. That makes it worth staying engaged: following organizations like Disability Rights California and Justice in Aging, attending town halls, and contacting state legislators directly, even in a year when the news for IHSS recipients and caregivers turned out to be reassuring.
The Takeaway
As of this writing, IHSS is not being eliminated, and the most recently signed state budget strengthens the program rather than weakening it. The specific cuts that worried so many recipients and caregivers this year were proposed, debated, and ultimately turned down. That’s a verifiable outcome based on the enacted budget — not a guess about where things might land.
Sources
- The 2026-27 Budget: In-Home Supportive ServicesLegislative Analyst's Office · March 18, 2026
- Health and Human Services, 2026-27 Governor's Budget SummaryCalifornia Department of Finance
- Summary of the Governor's Proposed 2026-27 BudgetDisability Rights California · January 2026
- Broken Promises: May Revision Would Strip Coverage from Older CaliforniansJustice in Aging · May 14, 2026
- In-Home Supportive Services: California's Personal Caregiving ProgramJustice in Aging
- Floor Report of the 2026-27 BudgetCalifornia Assembly Budget Committee · June 11, 2026
- Governor Newsom Signs Historic Balanced State BudgetOffice of Governor Gavin Newsom · June 29, 2026
- Governor Newsom, Legislative Leaders Announce Balanced Budget AgreementOffice of Governor Gavin Newsom · June 26, 2026
- FYI: Summaries of 2026-27 State Budget PlanJason Sisney · June 2026
- FY2026-27 State Budget AnalysisCalifornia Pan-Ethnic Health Network
- Newsom's Parting Gift: A Budget That Delays California's Deep Cuts to 2027CalMatters · June 2026
