Astonishing report: Huge success for Obamacare in California

“There have been considerable gains in access and affordability among those who have gained insurance compared to what they said in the baseline survey, while those who remain uninsured report difficulty affording care and that their health needs are being met at similar rates as they did almost two years ago, ” the report says.

However the survey launched Thursday by the Menlo Park-based group additionally discovered that loads of challenges for the newly insured stay in relation to paying for and accessing care.

Over two-thirds of people living in California who were initially uninsured are now covered by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, according to a new report. The problems were seen in both.

The survey outcomes did not shock some shopper well being advocates.

However the newest knowledge was welcomed by many well being care specialists.

Another hard-to-reach group includes residents who are eligible for insurance but are resistant to coverage or otherwise hard to reach, said Mollyann Brodie, senior vice president and executive director for public opinion and survey research at the foundation.

However, both the exchange and Medi-Cal have had problems, including for the narrow networks of doctors and hospitals. And entry to Medi-Cal docs – already a persistent drawback in a state that gives one of many lowest Medicaid reimbursements within the nation – exclusively worsened with the expanded variety of Medi-Cal enrollees.

But the survey found 83 percent of Medi-Cal enrollees and 63 percent of Covered California enrollees are mostly satisfied with their plans.

The recently insured are about half as likely to say they have had problems paying medical bills in the past year (23 percent now compared with 45 percent in 2013).

Around a quarter of Californians recently insured, however, say that they forgo receiving medical care because of the expenses. About 70 percent of those remaining uninsured after the second enrollment period are Hispanic.

When requested how nicely their well being wants are being met, 86 % of the lately insured now say they’re being considerably or very properly met – up from 51 % of the uninsured group in 2013.

The researchers also discovered that 40 percent who are still uninsured have never been part of an insurance coverage before.

So what are the excuses of those who have not signed up yet? Sixteen percent of these people claim that they were told by the doctors that they would not be accepted as patients in the past year, while 23 percent said that they were made to wait longer for a medical appointment than what was acceptable.

In San Jose, 48-year-old Dawn Hendricks – who had gone without health insurance since 2010 – this year enrolled in a Valley Health Plan offered on the Covered California exchange after she became a caregiver for her 63-year-old husband, who is disabled.

The premiums are exclusively $25 a month, she stated, and co-pays for issues like prescribed drugs are often lower than $5.

The other most common reason for being uninsured at 41 percent was that those people are illegal immigrants, and are therefore barred from signing up under Obamacare. Of the remaining, 43 % are eligible for protection however had been uninsured for 2 years or extra.

In another key finding, the report showed that while eligible uninsured Hispanics signed up for Medi-Cal or Covered California plans at about the same rate as whites, they still account for a disproportionately large share of the remaining people without coverage. From February 18 to May 13, 2015, 1,105 adults who had participated in the first survey were contacted. The margin of error is plus or minus 5 proportion factors for the survey of just lately insured Californians.