California's uninsured: progress toward universal coverage
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- California health care almanac (California HealthCare Foundation)
- Author(s):
- Fronstin, Paul, author
- Contributor(s):
- California HealthCare Foundation, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Oakland, CA : California Health Care Foundation, August 2018
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Insurance, Health -- statistics & numerical data Medically Uninsured -- statistics & numerical data Universal Health Insurance Adolescent Adult Aged Continental Population Groups Ethnic Groups Forecasting Health Benefit Plans, Employee Income Infant Insurance, Health -- trends Medicaid Medicare Middle Aged State Government Unemployment -- statistics & numerical data Unemployment -- trends Humans California United States United States.
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014, the uninsured rate in California dropped by nearly half, from 16% in 2013 to an all-time low of 9% in 2016. However, 2.9 million Californians remained uninsured. California's Uninsured: Progress Toward Universal Coverage takes a look at who was uninsured three years after full implementation of the ACA, which allowed individuals to purchase insurance through ACA exchanges and also expanded Medi-Cal. Even with these gains, the future of health insurance coverage remains uncertain. There have been many efforts to roll back portions of the ACA, including the elimination of the tax penalty for not obtaining health coverage beginning in 2019. Analysts predict that this policy change will increase the uninsured rate in California and nationally starting that year. KEY FINDINGS INCLUDE: (1) The drop in the uninsured rate was mainly due to a five percentage point increase in individually purchased insurance coupled with a four percentage point increase in Medi-Cal enrollment. (2) One in three of California's uninsured had annual incomes of less than $25,000. At this income level, people are potentially eligible for Medi-Cal, unless they do not qualify due to immigration status. (3) Of the 1.7 million uninsured workers in California, 47% worked for private companies with fewer than 50 workers. (4) Of California's uninsured, one in four were aged 25 to 34, nearly one in three were noncitizens, and over half were Latino. (5) A smaller percentage of Californians cited affordability as the reason for not having health insurance in 2016 compared to 2014.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (21 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101744527 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101744527