latimes.com/news/la-fi-uninsured16-2010mar16,0,2644301.story
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About 1 in 4 in California lack health insurance, a UCLA study finds
The jump in 2009 to 8.2 million adults and children from 6.4 million in 2007
stems largely from job cuts and the loss of employer-sponsored coverage amid the
recession.
By Duke Helfand
March 16, 2010
Nearly 1 in 4 Californians under age 65 had no health insurance last year,
according to a new report, as soaring unemployment propelled vast numbers of
once-covered workers into the ranks of the uninsured.
The state's
uninsured population jumped to 8.2 million in 2009, up from 6.4 million in 2007,
marking the highest number over the last decade, investigators from UCLA's
Center for Health Policy Research said.
People who were uninsured for
part or all of 2009 accounted for 24.3% of California's population under age 65
-- a dramatic increase from 2007 driven largely by Californians who lost
employer-sponsored health insurance, particularly over the last
year.
Among those over age 18, nearly 1 in 3 had no insurance for all or
part of 2009, the UCLA researchers found. The ranks of uninsured children also
grew. The study was based on phone interviews from 2007, updated with current
insurance enrollment data.
Adults over age 65, who are covered by the
federal Medicare insurance program, were not included.
As a result of the
insurance gap, many already strapped Californians have put off needed medical
care and usually wound up crowding emergency rooms, receiving costly care on the
run. Hospitals and insurance companies often pass on those expenses to customers
with insurance, increasing the cost of healthcare and driving up rates for those
who have coverage.
The new UCLA estimates arrive as President Obama and
congressional Democrats scramble this week to finalize an agreement on
healthcare reform. Democrats who are pressing the overhaul say it would expand
health insurance to tens of millions of uninsured people across the
country.
Yet even as leaders in Washington seek to expand coverage,
California officials are wrestling with budget proposals by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger to cut or eliminate publicly funded insurance programs that
critics say cover more than 2.5 million low-income children and their parents --
some of whom lost coverage because of layoffs.
California has one of the
highest uninsured rates in the country, alongside Texas and other states with
high unemployment. Because California's population is so large, however, it has
more uninsured people than any other state.
The number of uninsured has
swelled in tandem with California's unemployment rate, which rose to 12.3% in
December from 5.7% two years earlier, and as employers shifted more healthcare
costs to employees.
Bruce Kuhlmann of Santa Rosa was laid off in December
2008 from his job as a technology sales executive in Northern California. He has
depleted much of his retirement savings to pay for care since he was diagnosed
with cancer last month.
The father of three, including two college-age
children, has found it difficult to buy insurance on the individual
market.
Kuhlmann, 58, worries about affording an operation that he
believes will cost about $30,000.
"I've spent a fortune of my own money,"
Kuhlmann said in a phone interview as he prepared to undergo a medical procedure
at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. "I have a house mortgage. It's hard to get a
job because I don't feel so good. Everything is negative."
UCLA
researchers said they were surprised by the big jump in the uninsured population
from 2007 to 2009. The director of the health policy center, E. Richard Brown,
said the state's 8.2 million people without coverage was the highest number he
had seen in nearly three decades of studying the issue.
"California's
situation is pretty dire with respect to healthcare coverage," Brown
said.
The numbers of uninsured are likely to climb as the state's jobless
rate is expected to remain in the double digits well into next year.
"The
shocking increase in people losing insurance spotlights the problem that . . .
coverage may not be there for us when we need it," said Anthony Wright,
executive director of Health Access California, a Sacramento consumer group.
"This adds more urgency to the debate over the pending health reform proposals,
which directly address the insecurity Californians are
facing."
Researchers said federal subsidies for laid-off workers helped
some people who lost jobs and coverage. Yet even so the loss of insurance
affected young and old alike.
The percentage of uninsured children grew
to 13.4% in 2009 from 10.2% in 2007. The increase would have been greater if not
for insurance programs paid for by the state and federal governments. The number
of uninsured children rose from 1.1 million to 1.5 million over the two
years.
The study's lead author said that adults who lack the safety net
face the most daunting prospects.
"Being uninsured has real human
consequences. . . . It is costly for all of us," said Shana Alex Lavarreda,
director of health insurance studies at the UCLA research center. "It makes
reforms of the system absolutely essential."
duke.helfand@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times