Health Insurance in California Not the Only Area that is struggling

The number of people in the United States with health insurance increased by 1.5 million between the years of 2001 and 2002, to approximately 242.2 million. At the same time, the number of people who are uninsured increased to 43.6 million; an increase of approximately 2.4 million during the same time period.

During 2002, approximately 15 percent of the population did not have any health insurance coverage. Although this percentage is spread throughout the United States, states such as California are having big problems in this are. Health insurance in California is quite expensive, and more and more people are doing without.

Luckily, the overall numbers of insured children did not change during 2002. It held steady at approximately 89 percent of all children.

Additionally, the percentage of people on government insurance programs increased from 25.3 percent to 25.7 percent in 2002. The main reason for this was an overall increase in Medicaid coverage.

Other Details:

1. Uninsured Hispanics made up the largest percentage of any ethnic group. At 32.4 percent this is a big problem among this group of people.

2. More than two times as many foreign residents are uninsured in the United States. In fact, 33.4 percent of foreigners were uninsured in 2002.

3. People in the 18 to 24 age range were less likely than any other age group to carry health insurance. Next in line is the 25 to 64 year old age group, and then those over the age of 65. More than 99 percent of people over 65 have health insurance. This is due to the availability of Medicare coverage.

As you can see, even though health insurance in California is a big problem at this time, the rest of the country is not in much better shape.