Government
California uninsured population higher
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Dec. 28, 2009
The percentage of California's 32.4 million residents who are uninsured increased slightly to reach 20.6% in 2008, up from 20% in 2000.
This occurred despite Medicaid enrollment growing by 3.6 percentage points from 2000 to 2008 to reach 17.4% of the state's population. That's according to "California's Uninsured," a report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. The study was commissioned by the California HealthCare Foundation, a philanthropic organization that researches health care and funds the development of models to improve it in the state.
Declines in private health insurance coverage contributed to the growth of California's uninsured population. The percentage of state residents with private coverage decreased from 60.8% of the population in 2000 to 55.6% in 2008.
The report is available online (link).
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/12/28/gvbf1228.htm.
