This new study found that providing health insurance to the estimated 6.3 million Californians who are currently uninsured would increase direct health care expenditures within the state by about $7.4 billion, or $1,180 per uninsured person, with significant savings likely through better health, preventive care and reduced spending by "safety net" providers. The study used 2001 California Health Interview Survey data and 1998-2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data to provide estimates of the direct expenditures made on behalf of Californians in the health care system. The authors suggest that providing health insurance may be more affordable if the state can find mechanisms for redirecting current sources of public and private expenditures on behalf of the uninsured.

This fact sheet presents county-by-county estimates of the number of California residents who have lost health insurance during the economic downturn. The authors find that the number of Californians without health insurance grew in all counties and that 37 counties — from Imperial to Kern to Shasta — had uninsured rates above the statewide average of 24.3%.

Loss of health insurance was concentrated in Southern California (Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino counties), the San Joaquin Valley (all counties), and the Northern/ Sierra areas (all but Sutter and Humbolt), all of which had 2009 uninsured rates that were above the statewide average (24%).

The losses were due to sharp increases in local unemployment and corresponding drops in both household income and job-based coverage.

This report provides a pre-reform snapshot of health status and utilization characteristics of Californians who were either enrolled in commercial or public managed care plans or who were uninsured in 2007. Using the most recently available data from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), this report provides a detailed profile of demographic characteristics, disease conditions, health status, health care use, and barriers to care among California residents. Among the findings are a high need for certain types of health care, such as mental health services, as well as a growing reliance on high-deductible health plans, especially among the low-income and self-employed.

This new study found that providing health insurance to the estimated 6.3 million Californians who were uninsured in 2001 would increase health care expenditures within the state by about $842 million, or $143 per uninsured person, with significant savings likely through program consolidation, better health and preventive care, reduced uncompensated care spending by "safety net" providers, and expanding insurance revenues. The study used 2001 California Health Interview Survey data and 1998-2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data to provide estimates of the direct expenditures ($9.8 billion) made on behalf of Californians in the health care system. Then, data was collected from all of California's counties and programs for the uninsured in order to estimate the cost of providing indirect subsidies ($3.6 billion) to the uninsured. The authors suggest that providing health insurance may be more affordable if the state can find mechanisms for redirecting current sources of public and private expenditures on behalf of the uninsured.

This policy brief reviews the literature on access to health care as it relates to current proposals for health care reform in California. To draw their conclusions, the authors of the publication reviewed existing literature on the expansion of primary health care centers versus the expansion of health insurance. Additionally, the authors analyzed data from the 2005 California Health Interview Survey to determine current levels of insurance, usual source of care, and how the two relate to each other. The authors found that: Expanding the health care safety net has been shown to improve access to care by providing a usual source of care or "medical home" and providing enabling services such as child care, transportation, interpreter services, and case management. However, while many uninsured Californians are able to access primary care through community clinics and health centers, specialty services are not readily available. Having health insurance is associated with better health status and improved access to care. Still, health insurance alone is not sufficient to guarantee access to necessary services, especially in light of recent market trends toward high-deductible health plans, reductions in benefits, and greater patient cost sharing. In order to significantly reduce the barriers to access faced by Californians, the expansion of health insurance and primary care centers will have to happen together.

More than 5 million Californians enrolled in HMOs (over 50% of enrollees aged 12-64) are overweight or obese. This policy brief categorizes private HMO enrollees into the seven major health plans operating in California, and provides overweight and obesity prevalence data for each health plan. In addition, the brief also reports the proportion of overweight and obese for each health plan among different age groups and races/ethnicities. Despite controlling for these racial/ethnic differences and age, overweight and obesity proportions still differed among enrollees in the seven major health plans operating in the state.

In this report, we estimate the growth in Medi-Cal enrollment among both the newly and already eligible using the UC Berkeley/UCLA California Simulation of Insurance Markets (CalSIM) model.