Summary

Published Date: February 06, 2012

This comprehensive, biennial report uses the latest data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) to paint a comprehensive picture of health insurance trends, access, and coverage status for California's more than 37 million residents.

Based on data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) that was collected during an economic downturn – 2009 – the report provides compelling evidence of the inadequacy of the nation's current system of job-based health insurance coverage.  Specifically, the authors found that hundreds of thousands of Californians lost coverage during the "Great Recession" due in large part to job loss and that the number of Californians with medical debt grew by 400,000 between 2007 and 2009 to 2.6 million. 

The report was published with grant funding from The California Endowment and The California Wellness Foundation. 

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report contained two errors. On page 81, the legend for Exhibit 56 was incorrectly labeled. On page 85, the column heading in Exhibit 60 has changed from "Colonoscopy within the Past Two Years" to "Colonoscopy within the Past Five Years." The corrected version of the report is attached below.