Rate of Uninsured California Residents Continues To Grow
As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and legislative Democrats work to overhaul the health care system, a new study by the California HealthCare Foundation found that the number of uninsured Californians continues to increase, Dan Walters writes in the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert."
According to Walters, CHCF's "Snapshot: California's Uninsured 2007" notes that about one-fifth of California residents under 65 were uninsured at some period in 2006, a small increase from 2000. "Ironically," he writes, "the increase in uninsured was confined to those in middle- and upper-income brackets," while more low-income families obtained health care coverage.
The report "laid the decline in health insurance at the door of employers," Walters writes, adding that employer-sponsored health insurance accounted for 54.9% of coverage in 2006, compared to nearly 61% of coverage in 2000.
"Not surprisingly, one of the stickiest points in the Capitol's negotiations over" expanding health care coverage "is what mandate, if any, should be placed on employers," according to Walters (Walters, Sacramento Bee, "Capitol Alert," 11/26).
CHCF publishes California Healthline.