Coverage for Health Costlier

Workers paid 79 percent more for plans offered
by employers from 2001 to 2003

Los Angeles
More than 6.5 million Californians under age 65 – including nearly one million children lack health insurance, according to a report issued early August, 2005.

“I think that the trends we’re seeing are a clear indication that we are all headed over the cliff in not being able to afford health insurance coverage for ourselves and out families”, said E. Richard Brown, study co-author and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Among the findings:

Uninsured

• More than 5.6 million adults under age 65 lacked health coverage for at least part of 2003, including nearly 3.3 million who had none for the entire year. Nearly one million children lacked coverage, including 430,000 who had none for the whole year.
  
• The proportion of uninsured Californians remained the same during the study period. Researchers attributed that to more people buying their own coverage and state and federal insurance programs covering more children.
  
• The number of children who lacked health insurance for the entire year actually dipped 2.5 percent between 2001 and 2003. The uninsured rate for children living below the poverty line declined a “stunning” 6.9 percent, that study found.

Employer Health Insurance

• Employees paid 79 percent more for employer-provided insurance between 2001 and 2003, now an average of $204.33 a month. Those who buy private insurance sometimes find lower premiums but must accept high deductible and “skimpy coverage,” said Brown.
  
• Between 2001 and 2003, the number of adults covered all year by employer-offered health insurance fell 2.1 percent; the number of children covered decreased 3.9 percent. Most losses appeared to be because workers lost jobs or couldn’t afford increases in family coverage premiums.

Medi-Cal

• The number of children covered by Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs funded by the state and federal government rose 5.1 percent over the study period.
  
• Among all children who were uninsured at the time they were interviewed for the study, 55 percent were eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. Among those families, about one-third of parents didn’t think their children were eligible.

More on Drug Prices on the Rise:

AARP reports wholesale prices for widely used drugs are up more than six percent. Business six

Center for Health Policy www.healthypolicy.ucla.edu Brought to you by C-DATA:

Lonnie Johnson
C-DATA Operations Director