Over the past two decades, California has seen an increase in the percentage of people who are uninsured. California now has the largest number of people without health insurance — 6.9 million — of any state in the nation.
The percentage of Californians who obtain their insurance through their job has also continued to fall. The segment of the non-elderly population covered by employer-based insurance declined from 65% in 1987 to 53% in 2010. Although Medicaid coverage partially offset the loss, more than 20% of Californians remain uninsured.
This annual publication provides an overview of California's uninsured. This year's findings include:
- Employees in businesses of all sizes are more likely to be uninsured in California than in the United States.
- Nearly one-third of the uninsured in California and the nation have family incomes of $50,000 or more.
- Fifty-three percent of California's uninsured children are in families where the head of household worked full-time during calendar year 2010, down from 61% in 2008.
- About 60% of the uninsured population are Latino.
While the ranks of the uninsured may grow in the short run if more individuals lose their employer-based coverage, changes proposed under the Affordable Care Act, if permitted to take effect as scheduled in 2014, would allow more Californians to gain coverage.
The complete report, a quick reference guide, and the file of the Current Population Survey (CPS) data, along with past years' editions, are available as Document Downloads.
Related CHCF Pages below offers a link to California's Uninsured and Medi-Cal Populations: A Policy Guide to the Estimates, which provides specific advice to those who frequently need to cite estimates of the number of uninsured Californians using the CPS and California Health Interview Survey data sets.