Nearly two years after the major elements of the federal health care law went into effect, California voters say they’re happier with the way the state is running its health care services, but the cost of coverage continues to be a problem, according to a Field Poll released Wednesday.
The poll, the ninth in an annual series of health-related surveys funded by the California Wellness Foundation, found 58 percent of voters said they were generally satisfied with the way the state’s health care system is functioning. Thirty-four percent of respondents described themselves as dissatisfied.
That was an improvement over a 2008 Field Poll, conducted two years before the Affordable Care Act was passed, in which 50 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the state’s health care and 46 percent were dissatisfied.
“After all the noise and controversy over Obamacare, we’re seeing the most positive indicators across the board on health care we’ve seen in a long, long time,” said Daniel Zingale, senior vice president of the California Endowment, a private health philanthropy.
“We’re far from hanging out a ‘mission accomplished’ sign,” he said, “but I think you have to look at the trends.”
The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, but the centerpiece of the legislation — the virtual state- and federal-run marketplaces where consumers can buy coverage — debuted Oct. 1, 2013. California became the first state to start setting up its own exchange, which is called Covered California, and experienced fewer technical glitches than the federal website,www.healthcare.gov.
Another key piece of the legislation involved expanding the federal-state Medicaid programs for the poor to individuals who did not previously qualify. Although 20 states haven’t expanded their programs, California’s Medi-Cal expansion has covered nearly 4 million people since January 2014, adding to the 1.3 million people buying coverage through Covered California.
High cost of coverage
But affording their health care remains challenging for Californians. The Field Poll found 4 in 10 voters — 39 percent — said the amount they’ve been paying for health care has increased over the past year, although that was an eight-point drop from last year in the percentage of people who said their rates had risen. About 42 percent said they were having difficulty paying for their coverage and only 8 percent said their costs have decreased this year.
Diana Dooley, director of the state’s Health and Human Services agency, acknowledged that health care remains expensive.
“But the trends are what’s very encouraging,” she said. “Based on what we’ve been able to do in holding down the rates of increases, we’re trending in the right direction.”
Dooley was referring to a 4 percent overall rate increase that Covered California officials negotiated with private insurers for 2016, which was lower than the double-digit increases consumers in some other parts of the country will see next year.
7 percent increase
Covered California rates for Northern California residents, however, will increase an average of 7 percent because the insurance market is dominated by fewer health systems than in other parts of the state.
This year’s survey was conducted among 1,555 voters in eight languages and dialects from June 25 to July 16. Its margin of error was plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
The poll findings echo the results of a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released in July, which also found increasing satisfaction among California consumers. That survey found that 86 percent of recently insured Californians said their health care needs are “somewhat” or “very well” met, up from 51 percent in 2013.
Date: August 26, 2015