By Kathleen Scalise, Public Affairs
Posted February 2, 2000

Despite booming economic conditions in the state, the number of Californians without health insurance continues to grow at an alarming rate, according to a report issued by the Health Insurance Policy Program, a joint project of the Center for Health and Public Policy Studies and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

An additional 23,000 Californians fell off the health insurance rolls each month from 1997 to 1998, according to the 124-page report, which compares the most recent data available from 1999 and earlier. About 7.3 million Californians, or one in four of the state's non-elderly residents, have no health insurance. Of those, nearly half have been uninsured for more than five years or have never been insured.

"California's health insurance problems are bad and getting worse," said Helen Schauffler, a Berkeley professor of health policy and director of the Center for Health and Public Policy Studies, who co-wrote the report with E. Richard Brown, a UCLA professor of public health and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

"Not having health insurance has serious long-term consequences for the health of Californians," Schauffler said.

The annual report is the fourth in a series that began in 1996, covering the status of health insurance coverage in California. The report includes an overview and analysis of employer-sponsored, public and private health insurance coverage; purchasing groups; the integration of public health into California's health care system; and comparisons to prior data and national data.

Among the findings, California's uninsured population increased by 276,000 newly uninsured persons during 1998 and accounted for one in every three of the nation's newly uninsured. This is three times its share of the nation's uninsured population.

The drop in coverage is largely driven by a decline in Medi-Cal enrollment, the researchers found. Since 1995, the percentage of non-elderly Californians who relied on Medi-Cal fell from 14 percent to 11 percent. Meanwhile, rates of employer-based or privately purchased health coverage remained flat.

"California's increasing uninsured rate is a direct result of public policies that have decreased Medi-Cal coverage," said Brown. "The governor and legislature should act this year to expand eligibility in Medi-Cal and the Healthy Families Program to cover more children and their parents, and they should simplify and streamline these programs."

The researchers found that California continues to lead the nation in the number of residents without health insurance. One in six uninsured Americans lives in California. The state has a significantly higher uninsured rate ã 24 percent ã than the 17 percent national average. Additionally, only 58 percent of California workers have job-based insurance, versus 69 percent in the rest of the United States.

"California ranks dead last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the proportion of non-elderly residents who have job-based insurance," Brown said.

"Without health insurance, people delay or fail to seek care when they need it and lack access to important preventive care and health promotion services," Schauffler said. "This can lead to much more serious medical problems and results in poorer health. The state should set a policy goal of achieving universal, affordable, high-quality health coverage to improve the health of all Californians."

The "chronically uninsured" ã the nearly half of Californians without health insurance for at least five years or who have never had coverage ã are most likely to be male, Latino and poor.

"This study makes clear that it is people of color, children, the working poor and those unable to work who are bearing the brunt of California's health insurance crisis," said Gary Yates, president and CEO of The California Wellness Foundation. "This is a public health problem with significant implications for the health of the state's residents and the vitality of its workforce and economy. This issue needs the immediate and focused attention of policy makers in California."

February 2 - 8, 2000 (Volume 28, Number 20)
Copyright 2000, The Regents of the University of California.
Produced and maintained by the Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley.
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