ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Oscar, who is 55 years old, works three jobs, but his favorite job is prepping and serving tacos in an Orange County food truck.

"I love serving people. I love talking to people. It's beautiful," he said in Spanish.

After 30 years in the United States working 18-hour days, his body is starting to break down. First, it was his knees. He had to start wearing braces to ease the pain. Then, he started having trouble breathing. He would sleep sitting up. He self-medicated with some over-the-counter decongestants.

Recently, he developed a hernia from moving heavy objects around at work. His latest ailment is the one that really scares him.

"If I carry anything heavy, I could even die, but it's the reality I live in," he said.

The reality is that his undocumented status makes it nearly impossible for him to get health insurance.

He is banned from the Affordable Care Act exchange due to his status and is priced out of private insurance. He can only access Medi-Cal in emergencies.

It's been a while since he's been to the doctor.

"About seven or eight years ago, I had appendicitis. I was in a lot of pain. I couldn't take it anymore, so I went to the emergency room. I was in the hospital for three days," he said.

On some nights, before the food truck opens to customers, he makes a run to a nearby pharmacy to stock up on whatever solutions he can find over the counter to ease his problems. He said he hopes they will be enough to keep him working and keep him going.

"I live in fear because I have small children. If something happens to me, who is going to take care of them?" he asked.

Starting in the spring of 2022, Oscar will no longer have to self-medicate because an estimated 235,000 undocumented people over the age of 50 will now be able to access Medi-Cal in California.

The change is due to a $1.3 billion expansion of the program.

The expansion will mean different things to different people depending on where they live.

For example, Los Angeles, Ventura and Riverside counties already have an indigent health program accessible to undocumented people.

In LA, it is called My Health LA, but in Orange and San Bernardino, undocumented people do not have access to these programs, and for them, it will be a seismic change.

But not everyone is on board with the expansion.

Among them is Susan Shelley. She is the vice president of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Shelley said the cost would be solely on Californian's tab.

"The federal government will not share in these expenses as it normally does with Medi-Cal, and that's because this is for undocumented immigrants."

Shelley said the expansion would put other Medi-Cal users at a disadvantage.

"There are not enough doctors who will accept Medi-Cal patients because the state pays very low reimbursement rates. So, what happens is, people have a card, but they can't get an appointment, they can't find a doctor, they can't find a provider. Then what? Then they are back in the emergency room anyway. So, it's not saving any money, and it's really a promise not kept to the people that have been promised healthcare," Shelley said. 

This latest point is being debated in court, with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, or MALDEF, suing the Department of Health Care Services, responsible for Medi-Cal, alleging that it is hard for people in the program to access the care they need.

The lawsuit was filed in 2017, before this latest expansion.

Oscar, however, is thrilled at the thought that painful nights might soon be coming to an end when he can finally get access to health care.

"I'm so happy, this will allow me to relax a bit, going to my doctor every six months or every time I need a checkup, and not every five or six years when I need emergency intervention," he said.

That access to health care, he said, will allow him to continue providing for himself and his family.