UCLA Center for Health Policy Research

The distribution of health insurance in California changed dramatically after two years of high unemployment, from 2009 to 2011. According to data from the annual California Health Interview Survey, just under half of all nonelderly Californians in 2011 were insured through their own or a family member's job-based coverage. Nearly seven million children and adults were uninsured for all or part of the prior year, and almost four million of those had no insurance at all for the entire year or longer. The Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs picked up much of the slack for private insurance, covering one in five nonelderly Californians.