To clarify the extent of California registered voter support for expanding health insurance coverage to the remaining uninsured, the California Program on Access to Care (CPAC) of the University of California, Berkeley sponsored a poll of 1,000 California registered voters- 400 Latino voters and 600 non-Latino voters. The poll, conducted by Latino Decisions between March 25 and April 5, 2016, indicates that California voters are largely supportive of current policies that enable health care coverage to previously uninsured groups, but are split in their support of further expansion of coverage to the remaining uninsured. [Topline results here]
Over 200,000 children will soon gain access to care with the recent passage of SB 75 (Senator Ricardo Lara, 2015), which entitles children under the age of 19 to receive full-scope Medi-Cal benefits starting May 1, 2016. The poll of California voters found that a majority (62%) of the state’s registered voters approve of the recent extension of Medi-Cal coverage to children. Further, most voters (68%) approve of the current law which allows some undocumented immigrants to be eligible for health insurance coverage if they have temporary work permits.
Voters, however, were split in their support of Medi-Cal expansion to all low-income individuals, including those without documents with 42% supporting and 48% disapproving of expansion. When asked about policy options to enable expanded coverage to the remaining uninsured, 60% of voters indicated support for increasing taxes on tobacco product purchases and 54% of voters supported increasing state tax breaks for certain industries, such as the agricultural industry, to enable them to provide health care coverage for their workers. Other policies options faced opposition: 53% opposed increasing taxes on health insurance companies to pay for expanded Medi-Cal, 43% opposed increasing production taxes on the oil industry, and 45% opposed using existing state funds to expand Medi-Cal coverage.
A high proportion of voters were unsure of their support of policy options directed at the health care industry, including requirements for non-profit health insurance plans to use some of their net reserves each year to finance expanded coverage and expansion of hospital community benefit requirements to include requirements to cover the remaining uninsured. Voters may be hesitant to support policies they perceive may negatively impact their own health insurance coverage and increase their own costs of care. Given the constraints on state funds, a combination of different policy options will likely be required to expand coverage for the remaining uninsured.
Methodology: Interviews were completed by telephone, including 600 non-Latino and 400 Latino Registered Voters in California. Respondents answered in English or Spanish at their discretion. Results were weighted to known population characteristics using the Current Population Survey. The nominal margins-of-error are +/- 3.1% for the entire electorate, +/-4.0% on the non-Latino sample, and +/- 4.9% on the Latino sub-sample. CPAC works to inform the development of policies to support the expansion of health insurance coverage among the remaining uninsured. For more information about CPAC, please visit http://cpac.berkeley.edu or contact Hector P. Rodriguez, Interim Director of CPAC, University of California, Berkeley, at 510-642-4578 or by email: [email protected]
