Why is This Important?

Access to 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 leave 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, further burdening
individuals and the health care system.

What is a Sustainable State?

A sustainable state is one where all members of the community have health insurance that  ts their needs and budget.

How Are We Doing?

Health Insurance
· In 2009, 10.2 percent of San Mateo County residents lacked health insurance—about 75,000 individuals. This is a significant increase from 2007, when 7.6 percent of residents lacked health insurance.

· The percent of county residents lacking health insurance compared favorably with the statewide rate (14.5 percent) but was higher than both Santa Clara (9.5 percent) and San Francisco (7.9 percent) counties.

· The percentage of county residents receiving health insurance through their employers grew to 67 percent. Those insured—at least in part—by public insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid fell to 17.1 percent, the lowest level since SSMC began tracking these data.

· While the overall rate of uninsured is modest, the rates are extremely different among different income groups. Only 2.7 percent of residents of the county with incomes 200 percent or more above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) were uninsured in 2009. That percentage grows to 21.2 percent for those from 100 to 199 percent of the FPL, and for all residents in households below 100 percent of the FPL, the rate of uninsured is 47.8 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 2.5 percent, while the price for all goods only increased 1.4 percent from the previous year. This is the ninth straight year that the cost of medical care increased faster than the rate of inflation.

· In aggregate, medical costs in the Bay Are MSA have increased 53.3 percent since 2000, while the cost for all other goods increased 28.1 percent.