Roughly 1 in 4 Californians Are Uninsured

Almost 1 in 4 Californians under age 65 didn’t have health insurance in 2009, as many lost their jobs and the employer-sponsored health care that came with them, says a new UCLA study. Among those over 18, the figure jumped to almost 1 in 3. California has one of the country’s highest uninsured rates, yet it’s considering cuts in a public insurance program for low-income children and their parents.

“California's situation is pretty dire,” one of the UCLA researchers tells the Los Angeles Times. Researchers say they were surprised by how much the figures have grown since 2007. At the time, 6.4 million Californians were uninsured; now, 8.2 million are. The state's unemployment rate rose to 12.3% in December.