Cover the Uninsured Week!

This week is 'Cover the Uninsured' week raising awareness about the 45 million people nationwide and 6.6 million people who are uninsured in California.

Here's an excerpt about the uninsured in California from the California Healthcare Foundation's report "Snapshot: California's Uninsured 2007"

The number of uninsured Californians under age 65 continues to rise as employer-sponsored health insurance declines. Some who lose insurance at their workplace are buying individual policies, others become eligible for coverage through public programs like Medi-Cal. But more than 20 percent of Californians remain uninsured. The problem, though national, is more prominent in California, which has a lower percentage of individuals with employer-sponsored coverage and a higher proportion of uninsured. And because of California’s large population, the number of people without insurance — 6.6 million — is the highest of any state.

Reacting to inaction at the federal level, California is pursuing solutions closer to home. In 2006, California enacted legislation (SB 1448) that provides $540 million in new federal funds for local efforts to expand health coverage and care to uninsured individuals. And, in 2007, coverage expansion and health reform are high on the Sacramento policy agenda.

Some findings from this year’s snapshot include:

• Workers at private sector businesses of all sizes are experiencing an increased likelihood of being uninsured.

• More than a third of the uninsured have family incomes of more than $50,000 per year.

• Nearly 70 percent of uninsured children are in families where the head of the household has a full-time job.

• Nearly 60 percent of the state’s uninsured are Latino.

To start off the week we have an article that highlights the concern that California voters have over our current health care reforms:

In the news SF Chronicle published an article today highlighting a recent CA poll showing that 73% of voters are concerned about the state’s failure to enact health reform legislation.

Health care system pains state voters in poll

The full report is here:

As insecurities with the health care system grow, Californians are concerned about the state's failure to enact health reform legistlation