California Insurance Code

§ 12693

INS § 12693 Effective Jan 1, 1998Div. 2 · Part 6.2 · Ch. 1

Statute text

The Legislature declares all of the following:

(a)Approximately 1.6 million California children, 17 percent of children ages 17 and under, have no health insurance. One in four California children, which is 2.3 million, rely on Medi-Cal for insurance coverage, while just over half of the state’s children, 53 percent, have employment-based coverage through a parent.

(b)Most uninsured California children come from low-income families, with nearly 75 percent of uninsured children (1.2 million) living in families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Children whose families earn incomes between 100 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level, an estimated 580,000 children, are among the most vulnerable of populations. Their families make too much money to generally qualify for free Medi-Cal, are employed in working class jobs that typically do not offer insurance, and cannot afford private health insurance. In short, affordability remains a major barrier to obtaining coverage.

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Legislative history

Added by Stats. 1997, Ch. 623, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 1998.