Recession Drives Up Number of Californians Without Insurance / From Incentives to Infrastructure

[CAL/AAEM News Service]

Please note that the CAL/AAEM News Service will be changing to HTML format soon. Our new email address will be somcaaem at uci.edu. Please add this address to your email address book to prevent any interruption in service. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Recession Drives Up Number of Californians Without Insurance

Source: The California Healthline (http://www.californiahealthline.org)  
Date:  April 02, 2009

Since the start of the recession in November 2007, roughly 500,000 working-age Californians have lost their health insurance, according to a report the UC-Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education released Wednesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The increase in the number of uninsured California adults corresponds with a rise in unemployment, an important consideration given the strong ties between employment and health insurance benefits in the U.S.

The report predicts that by 2012:

-The number of uninsured working-age adults in California will increase by 1.4%, or 600,000, even if employment rates return to pre-recession levels; and 

-The number of employed Californians without employer-sponsored health insurance coverage will increase by 2.5% if health care reform is not approved and employer premium costs continue to increase by 7.5% annually. 

Methodology

The report used research from the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and data from the U.S. Census' Current Population Survey (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2).

The numbers include workers who join their spouse's plan or find other coverage.  The estimates do not include children or the elderly (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 4/1).

Families USA Will Weigh In

Families USA is expected to release its own study today indicating that 12.1 million Californians were uninsured at some point from 2007 to 2008 (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2).

From Incentives to Infrastructure: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — The Impact on California Health Care 

For more information, please visit:
http://www.californiahealthline.org/Articles/2009/4/2/Recession-Has-Driven-Up-Number-of-Californians-Without-Insurance.aspx#

------------------------------------------------------------------

From Incentives to Infrastructure: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — The Impact on California Health Care

Source: The California Healthcare Foundation (http://www.chcf.org)
Date: March 31, 2009

Since the February 17 enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the federal government has moved rapidly to implement its various provisions. Federal agencies face tight statutory deadlines to effect policy changes and disburse large amounts of funding from the stimulus package — generally only available for two years — to states, various entities, and individuals. 

Health care provisions in the stimulus package include shoring up funding for immediate health service needs, providing health coverage assistance to those impacted by the recession, and increasing both the quality of health care and its long-term economic efficiency through investments in health-related science and technology. 

State administrators and policymakers, industry leaders, and individuals all have a role to play in maximizing the benefits offered to California. In particular, they need to understand and act upon the prerequisites that must be met to qualify for or trigger the disbursement of stimulus funds. 

As California faces a $41.6 billion budget deficit, understanding how to take advantage of these opportunities is critical for the state. ARRA has particular significance in California, where state officials last week announced that the state will not receive enough federal budget relief from the stimulus package to avoid $948 million in welfare cuts and $1.8 billion in higher taxes. 

A new issue brief, published by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) in collaboration with Manatt Health Solutions, addresses the implications of ARRA for the California health care system. 

Among the specific ARRA-related health care programs and issues discussed in the report: 
-Medi-Cal support. Increase federal matching payments, increase Disproportionate Share Hospital funding, and place a moratorium on federal Medicaid policy changes that would have affected provider reimbursement. 

-Assistance with health coverage. Subsidies for and extensions of COBRA coverage and expansion of the federal Health Care Tax Credit.

-Investments in primary care. Grant opportunities and enhanced reimbursement for community health centers and additional support for primary health care workforce programs.

-Expansion of comparative effective research (CER). Significant increases in funding and establishing national priorities through establishment of a federal advisory board regarding CER.

-Other provisions include: Support for public health activities, health and science research and facility modernization, and health information technology, including telehealth and broadband programs.

To read more on this issue, please visit:
http://www.chcf.org/documents/policy/WhatCAStandsToGainStimulusPackage.pdf


Abid Mogannam &
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/

CAL/AAEM, a nonprofit professional organization for emergency physicians, operates the CAL/AAEM News Service solely as an educational resource for physicians. Dissemination of an article by CAL/AAEM News Service does not imply endorsement, agreement, or recommendation by CAL/AAEM News Service, CAL/AAEM, or AAEM.