To Buy or Not To Buy: A Profile of California's Non-Poor Uninsured
Jill Yegian and David Pockell of CHCF and Eleanor Murray of Field Research Corporation
September 1999
Why don't more of the seven million uninsured Californians purchase health care coverage on the individual health insurance market? Some simply can't afford it, but fully 40% of this population -- approximately 2.8 million people -- reside in households with incomes of at least 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). Many people at that income level can and do purchase individual coverage from the wide variety of benefit options currently available. Although significant demographic detail is available on California's uninsured population, the information that would allow for a more complete picture -- one that includes information on values, attitudes, and perceptions -- has been missing.
To fill this information gap, the California HealthCare Foundation and the Field Research Corporation conducted a survey of 1,009 uninsured adults earning at least 200% of FPL. In addition, interviews were performed with 802 adults who had purchased individual health insurance in order to compare their attitudes and perceptions regarding purchasing health insurance with the uninsured group.
Understanding how the uninsured population as a diverse whole breaks down into subgroups with more homogeneous attitudes and motivations will help in the development of tailored interventions, including working with policymakers and health plans on methods to increase coverage among this group.
The full report and survey instruments may be be found under Document Downloads below.