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The state of health insurance in California: findings from the 2019 and 2020 California Health Interview Surveys
The state of health insurance in California: findings from the 2019 and 2020 California Health Interview Surveys
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Charles, Shana Alex, author
Babey, Susan H., author
Wolstein, Joelle, author - Contributor(s):
- UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Los Angeles, CA : UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, January 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Insurance Coverage -- statistics & numerical data
Insurance, Health -- organization & administration
Insurance, Health -- statistics & numerical data
Health Services Accessibility -- statistics & numerical data
Surveys and Questionnaires
California
United States
United States. - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- This publication represents the 20th anniversary of the State of Health Insurance in California (SHIC) report series. It is the 10th installment of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research's ongoing, in-depth study of the overall outlook for health insurance coverage in our state, which has the population size of a country but operates within the federalist framework of the U.S. system. Longtime readers of this report series will find similar chapters as in the past--a demographic overview, private coverage, public coverage, and access to care impacts--and will recognize the focus on adults under age 65 and children, since seniors are almost universally covered through Medicare. However, we are now providing the data in a more streamlined and broadly accessible chartpack, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions based on the comprehensive data provided. Our data are from the 2019 and 2020 California Health Interview Surveys (CHIS), representing the decade following the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, also known as the ACA or "Obamacare." Most of the health insurance expansions took full effect in 2014. Since then, ACA expansion has continued in California, including the growth of subsidies and coverage, notwithstanding rollbacks and roadblocks posed by the federal government from 2017 to 2020. Despite these advances, this chartpack shows that significant coverage gaps remain in California. Racial and ethnic disparities persist (Chapter 1); many small businesses struggle to even offer health insurance to employees (Chapter 2); more than half a million low-income people who could be eligible for Medi-Cal remain uninsured (Chapter 3); and being uninsured remains a significant barrier to accessing health care (Chapter 4). Since the CHIS data are self-reported by respondents, numbers in this chartpack may not match with administrative data totals, particularly for Medi-Cal coverage. Our estimates of Medi-Cal coverage are lower overall than the state administrative enrollment data for 2020, due to known factors: (1) CHIS includes only the noninstitutionalized population and excludes people residing in nursing homes, dormitories, and prisons; (2) there is some respondent confusion between having Medi-Cal and Medicare coverage; and 3) some Medi-Cal beneficiaries who were signed up for the program by other entities (including hospitals, to recoup costs, or through continuing enrollment due to pandemic-era relaxation of cancellation regulations) may be unaware of their current enrollment. In addition, CHIS self-reported data for public coverage in California overall, which combines Medi-Cal and Medicare for all ages (14.7 million), closely matches the self-reported data for public coverage in California reported by the American Community Survey that was administered by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2020 (14.9 million). Additionally, CHIS instituted a change in its survey administration method beginning in 2019. Prior to 2019, households were mostly required to take CHIS over the phone, with some small component of online surveys. Starting in 2019, CHIS changed to being a survey that is mainly administered online, with phone surveys given only as a follow-up if a randomly chosen household has failed to complete the online survey. In its evaluation of the methodology change, the CHIS research team cautioned against comparing health insurance data over time. Therefore, we have included only 2019 and 2020 data in this report, and we note that any comparisons with previous State of Health Insurance in California reports should be interpreted cautiously, keeping this methodology change in mind. We hope that providing the 2019–2020 CHIS data will highlight the continued challenges in need of solutions on which policymakers, advocates, government agencies, and other stakeholders can focus their future efforts. There is still much work to be done.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (53 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918351283006676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918351283006676