Study Projects 3 Million Uninsured Californians Next Year

More than 100,000 people living in the Sacramento region may be uninsured next year, according to projections by UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

The findings show that majority of the state’s uninsured aren’t eligible for health insurance due to their immigration status.

Miranda Dietz, researcher at UC Berkeley’s Labor Center and co-author of the study, says affordability and eligibility are the main concerns of uninsured people.

“California is a high cost of living state especially in a lot of the higher cost of living areas folks are struggling to get by as is. So fitting healthcare into their budget can be a real struggle,” says Dietz.

Projections also show that more than three million people may be uninsured in California next year.

Before the Affordable Care Act, there were seven million uninsured people living in California.

"Some regions and some counties have done a really great job at outreach and enrollment and other counties have a little bit more room to get more people signed up," says Dietz. "There's also different resistance to the law in different places. And for Covered California there are different prices by region."

Currently, more than 12 million people are enrolled in Medi-Cal and about 1.6 million are enrolled in Covered California.

Open enrollment begins in the fall.