Number of Uninsured Californians Declines to 6.2 Million - 2 Million Are Eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families

A total of 6.2 million Californians had no health insurance coverage of any kind in 2000 — a fifth of the state’s population under age 65. The number of uninsured Californians in 2000 is about 375,000 lower than in 1998. This fact sheet provides an update on health insurance coverage in California for the nonelderly population. (We exclude persons 65 and older because less than 2% are uninsured.) It is based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which recently incorporated changes to more effectively measure health insurance coverage. These are the most recent data available; newer data from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) will be available in mid-2002 from UCLA.