Hundreds of thousands and maybe more than a million people in California will have an easier time getting health insurance next year, thanks to a package of reforms that could be a model for other states and eventually the federal government as well.

Under a new budget agreement that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies in the state legislature reached over the weekend, California in 2020 will begin offering state-funded health insurance to undocumented young adults , reintroduce the individual mandate penalty for people who dont have insurance, and offer more financial assistance to people buying coverage on their own.

The agreement still needs approval from the full legislature and a signature from Newsom. But despite a few pending issues in non-health parts of the budget, enactment appears to be all but certain, according to advocates and analysts who have followed the debate closely.

The new health care reforms arent supposed to be a substitute for Medicare for All or some of the other ambitious health plans that have captivated and energized progressives around the country. Newsom has previously endorsed the creation of such a single, government-run insurance program and the new budget agreement establishes a commission to figure out how such a proposal would work in California.

But that is looking more and more a long-term project , especially given that California has been talking about single-payer for years (decades, actually ) and the necessary political support for it remains elusive. In the meantime, the new budget agreement will help significant numbers of Californians who are either struggling with high premiums or who have no insurance at all, helping California to realize the full potential of the Affordable Care Act while moving the state closer to universal coverage.