Health and Low Income families of CA

Two new publications relating to health and low income individuals and children in California and California counties have been published-Trends in the Health of Young Children by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and Insure the Uninsured Project's California's Safety Nets and the Need to Improve Local Collaboration in Care for the Uninsured: Counties, Clinics and Local Health Plans.

Trends in the Health of Young Children examines key components of children's (ages 0- 5 years old) health across race/ethnicity and income levels in California for the years 2001, 2003, and 2005. Topics include uninsured rates by race/ethnicity and income level, type of health insurance coverage (public and private), usual source of medical care by race/ethnicity, preschool attendance by race/ethnicity and more.

Selected Findings:

• 14.6% of children aged 0-5 in poor families (up to 2 times the federal poverty level) in California were uninsured for all or part of the year in 2005 (pg.1).
• Latino children (0-5 years old) in California had the highest rates of being uninsured for all or part of the year at 15%- about 3 times higher than any other racial/ethnic group (pg. 2).
• Latino children (0-5 years old) in California had the highest usage of public health care (vs. private doctor's office) as a usual source of care in 2005 (at 47%) compared to 28.8% for African-American children, 18.8% for Asian Children and 11.8% for Whites (pg. 3).

California's Safety Nets and the Need to Improve Local Collaboration in Care for the Uninsured: Counties, Clinics and Local Health Plans examines California's healthcare safety net (California counties, community clinics, and even some private health care centers that service the uninsured and the poor).  The report focuses on safety net financing and resources for safety net infrastructure. Included in the report: how much is spent on healthcare for the indigent and the uninsured across counties including L.A. County, utilization of free and community clinics in California across regions (including Southern California), county funding streams per uninsured county resident, demographics and economics of regions across California, and more.

Selected Findings:

• There are about 4.9 million Californians lacking health insurance on any given day, and 6.5 million over the course of a year (pg. 3).
• In 2005, Los Angeles County spent $761.8 million on healthcare for the indigent (pg. 11).
• Out of the 6 regions of California (Bay Area, Central Coast, Central Valley, North Central, North Rural and Southern California), the Southern California region (includes-Los Angeles) has the second highest uninsured rates of people under age 65 at 22% (pg. 45)