Emboldened by President Barack Obama's recent executive order to spare some immigrants from deportation, Democrats, immigration groups and health care advocates in California are pushing for expanding health coverage to the part of the population that remains uninsured.

Although Obama’s action technically excludes immigrants who came to the country illegally from qualifying for federal health benefits, California has its own policy of providing health coverage with state money to low-income immigrants with what is called a "deferred action," which allows the immigrants to avoid deportation.

This may mean that Obama's executive order will enable hundreds of thousands of low-income immigrants in California to apply for California's version of Medicaid, Medi-Cal.

Medi-Cal, a health program for the poor funded by the federal government and the state of California, now covers more than 11 million Californians, which is roughly 30 percent of the state's population. The federal government is currently footing the bill for the expansion, but the state will eventually pay 10 percent of additional costs to cover low-income adults.

California is expected to spend more than $17 billion of its own money on the program this year, a figure which according to the Legislative Analyst's Office is up 3.5 percent from a year ago.

The president's executive order action has inspired Sen. Ricardo Lara, a Democratic lawmaker, to revive a bill that would provide health coverage to all Californians, regardless of their immigration status.

Sen. Ricardo Lara plans to reintroduce his Health4All bill on Monday in order to open Medi-Cal to immigrants, as well as extending subsidized health benefits in a new insurance marketplace for those lacking legal status.

The proposed bill, which previously carried a cost as high as $1.3 billion a year, was stalled in a legislative committee last cycle while Republicans criticized the cost of the expansion.

According to The Associated Press, Lara noted that while the president's action covers almost half of California's undocumented population, that still leaves over a million people with no access to health care. “We can do better," Lara said. "The Health4All bill will cover those remaining uninsured that will not benefit from Obama's action."