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Uninsured

California's Uninsured

Paul Fronstin, Employee Benefit Research Institute

December 2009

Over the past 21 years, the percent of uninsured Californians under age 65 has continued to rise as employer-sponsored health insurance has declined. Between 1987 and 2008, employer-sponsored coverage declined 9%. Although Medicaid and individually purchased coverage partially offset this decline, more than 20% of Californians remain uninsured.

The problem, though national, is more prominent in California, which has a lower percentage of individuals with employer-sponsored coverage and a higher proportion of uninsured. And because of California's large population, the number of people without insurance — 6.6 million — is the highest of any state.

Some findings from this year's snapshot include:

• Almost one third of uninsured Californians have family incomes of more than $50,000 per year.
• Employees in businesses of all sizes, including the self-employed and those working in the public sector, are increasingly likely to be uninsured, although the trend is more pronounced in businesses with fewer than ten employees.
• Some 60% of uninsured children are in families where the head of the household has a year-round, full-time job.
• Sixty-nine percent of uninsured children are eligible for the Medi-Cal or Healthy Families programs.
• Nearly 60% of the state's uninsured are Latino.

Given the current economic conditions in California and the rising unemployment rate, it is likely that the ranks of the uninsured will continue to grow in the coming year.

The complete report is available under Document Downloads below.

Also available are the detailed data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), from which this graphical snapshot is drawn, as well as a link to California's Uninsured and Medi-Cal Populations: A Policy Guide to the Estimates, which offers 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.

Document Downloads

Snapshot: California's Uninsured, 2009 (1.189MB)

CPS Data 2009 (676K)

Uninsured Snapshot 2009, Quick Reference Guide (731K)

Snapshot: California's Uninsured, 2008 (1.114MB)

CPS Data 2008 (834K)

Snapshot: California's Uninsured 2007 (538K)

CPS Data 2007 (336K)

Related CHCF Pages

California's Uninsured and Medi-Cal Populations: A Policy Guide to the Estimates

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