Why is This Important?
Affordable quality health care is necessary for a healthy and productive life. High costs for health insurance, medical treatment, and medications are a deterrent to obtaining proper care and leaves less money for other basic needs. Health insurance allows for better access to health care and spreads the cost of care across the community. Deferring care because of cost often leads to more severe illness, which burdens individuals and the health care system further.
What is a Sustainable State?
A sustainable state is one where all members of the community have access to affordable quality health care and health insurance.
How Are We Doing?
Health insurance
• In 2007, the last year for which data were available, 7.6 percent of San Mateo County residents lacked health insurance-about 56,000 individuals. The percent was almost unchanged from 2005 when 7.8 percent of county residents lacked health insurance.
• The percent of county residents lacking health insurance compared favorably with both the state (13.2 percent) and the nine-county Bay Area region (8.3 percent).
• Between 2005 and 2007, the percent of county residents receiving health insurance through an employer-based plan increased from 63 percent to 66 percent. Only 54 percent of individuals statewide received health insurance through an employer-based plan.
• The percentage of county residents receiving health insurance through public programs fell to 18.2 percent, compared with 22.4 percent in 2005. For the purposes of this analysis, "public programs" include Medicare, Medicaid, and public-private coverage combinations (such as Medicare along with private "Medigap" insurance). The percentage of county residents purchasing solely private insurance remained essentially unchanged in 2007 at 7.7 percent.
Health care costs
• In 2009, the cost of health care in the Bay Area Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), as measured by the change in the medical care category of the Con sumer Price Index, grew by 4.2 percent annually, while the price for all goods only increased 0.7 percent from the previous year.
• Over the past decade, medical costs have increased at a much higher rate than other goods. Medical costs in the Bay Area MSA have increased 50.7 percent, while the cost for all other goods increased 26.7 percent.
