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. Unfortunately due to the high number of uninsured the premium for the insured are rising in CA Brentwood and Santa Monica, which makes it harder to find affordable health insurance.

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.

When hospitals have to cover the expense for the treatment of the uninsured, they have to raise the rates for hospital charges for the insured, so that they can cover their losses while providing treatments for the uninsured. In order to keep premiums down we need to find a way that the number of uninsured shrinks in California, this is the only way to assure that affordable health insurance in Brentwood and Santa Monica will be still available.