The California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) released their 2023 California Health Policy Survey on Feb. 16th, which found that Californians remain concerned about costs of healthcare. CHCF has conducted a statewide survey of residents’ views and experiences on a variety of healthcare topics annually since 2019.
According to the CHCF survey, 52% of Californians reported skipping or delaying healthcare in the past 12 months due to cost, and of that 52%, 50% said their condition worsened as a direct result. Medical debt also remains a barrier to receiving care, with 36% of Californians reporting having medical debt, of which 19% reported owing more than $5,000.
The survey also found that Californians with lower incomes (52%) are more likely than those with higher incomes (30%) to report medical debt. Broken down by demographic, 52% of Latin/X individuals reported having medical debt; 48% of Black individuals reported having medical debt; 28% of white individuals reported having medical debt; and 27% of Asian individuals reported having medical debt. CHCF states that those who do not have a primary care provider and those who spoke Spanish were more likely to report medical debt.
“When asked about what kind of medical debt they have, two in 10 Californians report owing debt to a bank, collection agency, or other lender (20%), having medical or dental bills on a credit card (19%), paying off medical or dental bills directly to a provider (19%), and having medical or dental bills that are past due or they are unable to pay (17%),” stated the CHCF survey. “Fewer Californians report owing medical debt to a family member or friend (12%).”
Among Californians who report having some medical debt, 19% reported debt of “less than $500” or “$500 to less than $1,000.” About 16% of Californians with medical debt reported debt of either “$1,000 to less than $2,500” or “$2,500 to less than $5,000.” About 20% of Californians with medical debt report an amount of $5,000 or more.
The CHCF survey found that 65% of Californians reported that they are “very” or “somewhat” worried about unexpected medical bills, with the portion of Californians “very” worried about unexpected medical bills having risen from 30% last year to 35% this year. Furthermore, 65% of Californians are worried about out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
Regarding Medi-Cal, Californians with lower and higher incomes reported that Medi-Cal is very or somewhat important for the state. About 84% of Californians with lower incomes say that Medi-Cal is “very” or “somewhat” important to themselves and their family, compared to 40% of Californians with higher incomes.
When it comes to home-based supports, 16% of Californians report providing ongoing living assistance to a family member or close friend, such as cooking and cleaning the house. Those with lower incomes are over twice as likely as those with higher incomes to be providing this support, and of the 16% providing ongoing living assistance, 23% are paid for providing this care.
Additional survey findings show that 44% of Californians reported that they are “not too” or “not at all” confident in having financial resources to pay for any home-based support they or their family members will need as they grow older. In the past 12 months, 14% of Californians attempted to get home-based support for themselves or their family members and of those, 35% were unable to get the care they needed.