Number of Uninsured Jumped to More than 8 Million from 2007 to 2009
Nearly 2 million Californians lost their health insurance during 2008 and 2009 - years characterized by a deep recession and mass layoffs - bringing the total number of uninsured in the state to more than 8 million, according to new estimates from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The number represents a 25 percent increase in the number of uninsured since 2007, when 6.4 million Californians lacked insurance, according to the authors of the new policy brief, Number of Uninsured Jumped to More Than Eight Million from 2007 to 2009. |
|
|
2008 Health Insurance Survey of California Farm and Ranch Operators - Issue Brief No. 2
The 2008 Health Insurance Survey of California Farm and Ranch Operators - Issue Brief No. 2 looks at the financial burden of health care costs on farm and ranch families. These families report spending an alarming 37 percent of their income on health care coverage and medical costs. |
|
|
2008 Health Insurance Survey of California Farm and Ranch Operators: Overview of Findings
2008 Health Insurance Survey of California Farm and Ranch Operators: Overview of Findings is the first of two briefs -- commissioned by The California Endowment and produced by the Access Project -- based on a survey of farm and ranch operators in California. The survey found that despite high rates of insurance coverage, farm and ranch families in the state spent on average more than $8,500 on health care premiums and other out-of-pocket expenses annually. |
|
|
Adult Dental Medi-Cal Cuts: Costs & Consequences
The Adult Dental Medi-Cal Cuts: Costs & Consequences report examines the impact of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to eliminate Denti-Cal (Medi-Cal dental service benefits). |
|
|
Health Coverage for All Californians: Catching up with the Public
Prepared for The California Endowment by Viewpoint Learning, Inc., the report Health Coverage for All Californians: Catching up with the Public is a report that captures dialogues held between the public, business and civic leaders on how to move health reform forward in California. |
|
|
Saving School-Based Medicaid Administrative Claiming
On Dec. 28, 2007, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services published the final rule to end federal reimbursement for school-based claiming. Scheduled to take effect on Feb. 28 of this year, the proposal would prohibit local agencies from claiming federal Medicaid reimbursements for school-based Medicaid administrative activities and for home-to-school transportation for special education students. School districts and their member organizations across the country have asked Congress to prevent implementation of this rule. |
|
|
Health Care Coverage Expansion in California: What Can Consumers Afford to Spend?
Prepared by the University of California, Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy, and funded by The California Endowment, this study provides insight as to how much California families are spending on health care in relation to their annual income, as well as the devasting medical expenses they face if they are not adequately protected. This report makes recommendations in order to allow all California families to afford health care coverage. |
|
|
California’s Uninsured Need Both Expansion of the Safety Net and Health Insurance
Choosing between expanding the safety net and expanding health coverage is a false choice that will not eliminate the barriers to health care for currently uninsured Californians, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. |
|
|
Health Care Reform Proposals Hold Promise for Diverse Communities: Getting California Ready
Prepared by the Having Our Say Coalition, and funded by The California Endowment, The Californian Wellness Foundation and The San Francisco Foundation, this report highlights how the health care reform proposals being discussed for California will impact communities of color. The report also outlines the coalition's recommendations to ensure that the health care system is prepared for the newly insured. |
|
|
California Health Reform: What's at Stake for Rural Communities? - part 1
Prepared by the California State Rural Health Association and funded by The California Endowment, this policy brief examines the impact current health care reform proposals would have on California’s rural areas. The brief also outlines four critical health care issues facing rural residents that are not adequately
addressed in all or some of the current reform proposals: Health Professional Shortages, Adequacy and Affordability of Coverage, Chronic Disease Management and Availability of Health Insurance Products in Rural Communities.The authors also offer recommendations to legislators. |
|
|
California Health Reform: What's at Stake for Rural Communities? - part 2
Press release |
|
|
What Does it Take for a Family to Afford to Pay for Health Insurance?
A new UCLA Health Policy Research Report provides insight into how much Californians can afford to pay for health care. The researchers estimate how much people currently pay for health care – including both insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses – and how much they pay for the cost of other basic expenses – including housing, child care, transportation, food and taxes on the income needed to purchase these necessities. |
|
|
Health Reform 2007: Impact on the Valley
The Central Valley Health Policy Institute at California State University, Fresno, recently issued the policy brief Health Reform 2007: Impact on the Valley. Funded by The California Endowment, the brief offers a San Joaquin Valley perspective on the various proposed health reform measures currently being debated in California. |
|
|
Expansion of Health Insurance in California Unlikely to Act as Magnet for Undocumented Immigration
A new research brief issued by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and funded by The California Endowment showed that any new expansions of health insurance in California are unlikely to attract additional undocumented immigrants to the state. The brief, Expansion of Health Insurance in California Unlikely to Act as Magnet for Undocumented Immigration, notes that both legal and undocumented immigrants are primarily motivated to come to the state by employment opportunities and family reunification. |
|
|
Health Coverage Proposals in California: Impact on Businesses
Authored by researchers at UC Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education, Health Coverage Proposals in California: Impact on Businesses analyzes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's health care reform proposal and Assembly Bill 8 (AB 8). The report finds that these two proposals are likely to have a positive net impact on the state's economy. |
|
|
The State of Health Insurance in California
This publication from UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research shows that the continued erosion of California's job-based health insurance -- which the vast majority of insured residents rely upon to pay for medical services -- is a clear indication of the need to reform the state's health care system. |
|
|
The Working Uninsured: An Analysis of Worker Health Coverage Among California Industries
The Center on Policy Initiatives has released the report, The Working Uninsured: An Analysis of Worker Health Coverage Among California Industries. Partially funded by The California Endowment, the analysis reveals that half of working adults in California receive health insurance through their jobs. |
|
|
Medi-Cal Lost: How Overly Complex Rules End Health Coverage for Low-Income Consumers
The Health Consumer Alliance has released a report detailing barriers that cause low-income, eligible Californians to lose Medi-Cal coverage. Medi-Cal Lost: How Overly Complex Rules End Health Coverage for Low-Income Consumers examines how beneficiaries lose their insurance despite being eligible and gives policy recommendations to help low-income Californians maintain consistent health coverage. |
|
|
California Uninsurance Rates Vary Greatly by County
In California, there are more than 6 million people without insurance, but uninsurance rates vary greatly by county. A new UCLA Health Policy Fact Sheet, California County Uninsurance Rates Vary Greatly, shows that counties with the highest rates of uninsurance had correspondingly low rates of employment-based coverage. |
|
|
A Tear in the Safety Net
Many hospitals lack financial assistance policies to aid low-income and uninsured patients, according to A Tear in the Safety Net, a report recently released by Health Consumer Alliance and funded by The California Endowment. The report outlines problems patients face when seeking financial assistance for medical care as well as steps hospitals must take to implement and improve availability of such programs. |
|
|
One in Five Californians Uninsured
Two recently released reports by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research illustrate the challenges to insuring Californians. The first study reports that one in five Californians are still without health insurance, and the second study found that more than half of the uninsured children in California are eligible for public programs, but are not enrolled, a further sign of the limitations in current health insurance arrangements. |
|
|
One in Five Californians Uninsured - Brief
|
|
|
The 2005 Hospital Waiver Coverage Initiative: Discussion and Analysis of 22 Key Questions to Launching the Coverage Initiative
In September 2005, the state of California and the federal government agreed to the Medi-Cal Hospital Waiver, which makes fundamental changes in how California hospitals will be paid for care given to Medi-Cal beneficiaries and the uninsured. As part of this waiver, there is $540 million in federal funds available during the last three years of the waiver for the implementation of a HealthCare Coverage Initiative (CI) to help cover uninsured Californians. Written by Peter Harbage, this paper is designed to outline some of the critical questions that need to be answered in order to develop the coverage initiative. |
|
|
The 2005 Hospital Waiver Coverage Initiative: Discussion and Analysis of 22 Key Questions to Launching the Coverage Initiative - Fact Sheet
|
|
|
Current Strategies to Expand Dependent Health Coverage
This report, funded by The California Endowment, show that increasing health premiums are eroding dependent coverage nationwide. While job-based dependent coverage is falling for all income levels, the sharpest drops are in low and moderate-income families. |
|
|
Job-based Coverage Drops for Adults and Children but Public Programs Boost Children's Coverage (UCLA Center for Health Policy Research)
Between 2001 and 2003, both children and adults lost employment-based health insurance coverage. Using data from the 2003 California Health Interview Survey, this policy brief provides a profile of nonelderly Californians' health insurance coverage and describes how these rates have changed. |
|
|
Health Status of the Uninsured: Opportunities for Improvement
This policy brief highlights the geographic variations in self-reported poor/fair health status, asthma and hypertension rates among uninsured Californians for counties, county-groups, Los Angeles Service Planning Areas, as well as for state legislative and Congressional districts. |
|
|
Sick and In Debt: Improper Practices that Cause Medical Debt for Low-Income Californians
This report reveals many improper, and sometimes illegal, practices by state administrators and providers that cause medical debt to fall on low-income consumers. Consumers who have health coverage and uninsured consumers alike face barriers to health care caused by medical debt. |
|
|
Insuring California's Healthy Future
This report, which was created by The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, details the use of Medi-Cal and Healthy Families Public Insurance Programs by California's Ethnic Minority Communities. |
|
|
