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State of Health

Californians Better Insured, But More Obese and Diabetic, Says Survey

Jon Brooks
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 (Getty Images)

The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has had a significant impact on
decreasing the number of adults without health insurance, according to new data from the California Health Interview Survey, released Tuesday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

The two-year survey queried 23,160 Californians in 2013 and 24,845 in 2014.

The center said that as a result of Obamacare's 2014 expansion of Medi-Cal to those households just above the federal poverty level, the rate of uninsured Californians ages 19-64 fell from 20.6 percent to 17.4 percent.

Among all nonelderly Californians, "the uninsured rate declined to a new low of 13.6%," the center said.

On the negative side, two troubling statistics:

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About 27 percent of Californians were considered obese in 2014, compared to 19 percent in 2001. That's a whopping 42 percent increase.

And nearly 9 percent of respondents reported having been diagnosed with diabetes. The trendline on that is not encouraging, either, surging from 6.6 percent in 20013 to 8.9 percent in 2014.

diabetes

More findings highlighted by the center in its press release:

  • Children and sedentary time. On a typical weekday, nearly half (46.5 percent) of children ages 2 to 11 spend 2 or more hours a day watching TV, playing computer games or talking with friends, and that increases on the weekend to more than 7 in 10 children (71.7 percent).
  • Teens and smoking. Roughly 1 in 10 teens reported “vaping,” smoking e-cigarettes.
  • High school students and community. Nearly 90 percent of adolescents feel they can make a difference in their community, a positive attitude that spanned disparate incomes and races/ethnicities.
  • Women and family planning. Birth control pills still reign as the most popular method of family planning among women. Of nearly 2 million women ages 18 to 44 who received birth control from a doctor, 56.6 percent were on the pill. Nearly 34 percent used IUDs, implants and other hormonal methods.
  • Adults and smoking. Nearly 12 percent of adults 18 and older are current smokers, but 7 in 10 of those smokers have thought about quitting in the next 6 months.

If you want to find more stats related to the survey, you can register at the AskCHIS website.

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