Overview

The uninsured in California comprise a mix of the employed who are not offered employer-sponsored coverage, dependents of covered individuals, undocumented/ illegal immigrants, employees who decline employer-sponsored coverage and those eligible for public assistance programs but not enrolled. Some may be uninsured intermittently because they are between jobs. Nearly 20 percent of California’s uninsured are children. The majority of Californians are covered by health insurance or public assistance health programs.

As the cost of health care rises, employer-sponsored health insurance declines and so does the number of insured Californians. The most often-quoted number of uninsured in California is 6.5 million, approximately 20 percent of the population. According to the California Healthcare Foundation in its 2007 Snapshot of California’s Uninsured, most Californians still receive health insurance through employers, although coverage from that source has declined about 10 percent over the last 20 years.

Goals

The CalChamber has taken an active role in working with business groups, the administration and the Legislature to craft a public-private partnership solution to health care affordability and access. It is the policy of the CalChamber to:

• Promote efforts to contain costs and improve access by supporting a health care system that is affordable and improves the overall health of California citizens.
• Initiate and support efforts to inform and educate policymakers, the public and the media on the role private employers play in voluntarily providing and financing health care coverage for their employees.
• Work to contain costs and avoid unnecessary and expensive regulatory controls, including mandates.

Major Victories

• Secured veto of health care tax on employers in 2007 (AB 8).

Position

The CalChamber supports:

• Actions that preserve the current voluntary employer-provided health coverage system.
• A multiple-payer system that expands access to health care services and coverage.
• Efforts to contain the costs of premiums by opposing mandates of specific health benefits.
• Legislation and regulation to authorize health carriers and allow employers to offer a variety of flexible benefit plans to their employees.
• Innovative solutions to improve access, quality and cost of health care delivery. 
• Opportunities to gain efficiencies and optimal outcomes by coordinating the fragmented health care delivery systems.
• Policies that promote treatments that are effective based on medical evidence.
• Conformity to federal law on health savings accounts.
• Wellness and disease management education and health promotion programs.
• Policies that encourage continued medical discoveries and innovations that improve quality of care.
• Policies and initiatives that prevent cost shifting of health care programs and coverage of the uninsured and underinsured to employers.  

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