Dive Brief:
- Following three years of open enrollments under Affordable Care Act, California has seen 72% of its people who were uninsured in 2013 report that they are now insured--including 78% of all those eligible, according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
- The number indicates a small increase from the 68% of people who reported having insurance following the second open enrollment.
- Of the state's previously uninsured population, about 11% said they got a plan through Covered California, the state's ACA marketplace. One-third said they obtained coverage through Medi-Cal, the state's expanded Medicaid program, while 21% said they got employer coverage and another 8% said they obtained coverage from another source.
Dive Insight:
California's coverage increase may be tied to the state taking one of the most hands-on approaches toward the effort, in both expanding Medicaid and operating its Covered California marketplace. The state's marketplace has been hailed as a potential national model for its role as an active purchaser and made further headlines as the first one to impose quality and cost standards on plans and providers.
Of the new KHN findings, one key statistic indicates that the majority of those who gained health insurance have also maintained some form of coverage. It found 63% of habitual survey respondents to have maintained coverage for at least one year, including 48% who maintained it for at least two years. In comparison, 14% of the habitual respondents reported unstable coverage status, indicating they gained but then lost coverage. Of those, 5% got covered again while 9% remained once again uninsured.
Of the 27% reporting that they do not currently have health insurance, nearly half said it was because they couldn't afford it, KHN reported, although some of the issue may be a matter of communication given that many of those people reported a family income that could make them eligible for Medi-Cal or financial assistance through Covered California.