68% of uninsured in Calif. now covered
By Victoria Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle
Two-thirds of Californians who were uninsured before the Affordable Care Act went into effect now have health coverage, according to a study released Thursday.
The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation has followed more than 1,100 Californians who lacked health insurance as of September 2013 through the first two coverage enrollment periods, the latest of which ended in February.
The foundation found that 68 percent of previously uninsured Californians now have coverage, up from 58 percent after the first enrollment period ended in spring 2014. About a third of the previously uninsured are now covered through the state’s Medi-Cal program for the poor, while just 12 percent bought coverage through Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange.