California’s health insurance exchange, Covered California, has enrolled more than 625,000 people under the Affordable Care Act. However, many eligible enrollees have yet to sign up, including a disproportionate share of Latinos. But if residents follow through on the intentions they express in PPIC Statewide Surveys, enrollment should continue to grow for all groups. This is significant because Covered California will need to enroll a broad group of eligible Californians—particularly the young and healthy—to keep premiums low in the future.
In PPIC’s January survey, 72 percent of the uninsured say they will obtain insurance in accordance with the law, up slightly from our December survey (66%). We then combined the two surveys and found that solid majorities of the uninsured in all demographic groups say they plan to sign up, with particularly high numbers in the following groups:
- Young people: 76 percent of residents ages 18 to 34 plan to enroll in health insurance. Of all the uninsured who say they will do this, 52 percent are in this age group.
- Latinos: 72 percent say they will enroll. Latinos comprise just 20 percent of current enrollments, but in our survey 61 percent of all those who say they plan to sign up are Latino.
- Spanish-preferring residents: 70 percent of those who took the survey in Spanish say they will sign up.
- Lower-income residents: 75 percent of those with annual household incomes under $20,000 say they will obtain insurance. Of those with annual incomes of $20,000 to $40,000, 65 percent plan to enroll.
- Women: 75 percent plan to enroll.