Health status of the uninsured: opportunities for improvement.

A Publication of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Uninsured Californians report serious health problems that are complicated by their lack of having health insurance. One in five Californians without insurance coverage for all or part of the year reports that their health is fair or poor and one in 14 reports having asthma symptoms. Additionally, one in four uninsured adults (age 45 or older) reports being diagnosed with hypertension. Self-reported health, a reliable measure of current health, is also widely used as a proxy for future health outcomes. Therefore, poor overall health, asthma and hypertension are each problems that require regular medical monitoring and treatment—medical care that is likely to be hindered by having no health insurance. This policy brief provides data for California counties and legislative districts that highlight the variations in the rates of self-reported fair or poor health, asthma and hypertension for children and adults without health insurance coverage for all or part of the year. The rates reported in this policy brief are estimates created by a small-area methodology, based on data from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS 2001) that are applied to population data from the 2000 Census and 2002 California Department of Finance.