News Release

November 30 , 2006

Contact:
Judy Darnell, State Director
United Way’s Covering California’s Children
(831) 246-3099   jdarnell@unitedwaysc.org

What Voters Want for California’s Health Care Reform:
New Poll Shows 81% of Voters Support Solutions to Ensure All California Kids Have Health Insurance

Sacramento, CA – At a news conference in Sacramento today, the United Ways of California released the results of a new, statewide survey on children’s health coverage. Mirroring the results of a previous survey done in May 2006, the new poll found that California voters continue to show overwhelming support for providing all of California’s children with comprehensive health insurance. The November survey also found that California voters think California can afford to cover all kids and believe it is a realistic goal.

The statewide survey of 900 likely California voters was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research between November 8-13, 2006, and has a margin of error of +/-3.3%.

United Way joined the 100% Campaign, business leaders, PICO California, parents and other children’s healthcare advocates to remind Governor Schwarzenegger and legislators that providing health care for all California children should be the number one priority as lawmakers tackle health care reform this year.

“This poll demonstrates that California voters - across political and geographic spectrums - view children’s health coverage as a top priority,” said Judy Darnell, State Director of United Ways Covering California’s Children. “As the Governor and Legislators embark on their ‘year of healthcare reform’, they should consider these results. Any healthcare reform must start with a solution to cover all kids, and anything less is a failure.”

Below are some key findings with additional information included in the attached slides:

California voters continue to overwhelmingly support solutions to cover all kids. They think California can afford it and believe it’s a goal that is ‘realistic and doable.’

• A whopping eighty-one percent (81%) of voters support ensuring that all children in California have health insurance. These support levels remain statistically unchanged from the United Way’s May 2006 survey (83% support).
• When told that close to 1 million California children (out of 10 million) are uninsured, 67% of voters believe that covering all kids is a goal that is “realistic and doable”.
• 67% of voters believe we can afford it and that covering all kids is “worth doing” even after informed of the potential cost ($400 million per year).
• In fact, 62% of voters are willing to “personally contribute 11 dollars each year to ensure that every child in California has health insurance”.
• 71% of voters believe that we should provide basic health care benefits, including preventative care, immunizations and dental, even if it costs slightly more.

Support for covering all kids is strong across political and geographic lines.

• 93% of Democrats, 83% of Decline to State/Other and 66% of Republicans support providing health insurance to all California children.
• Voters throughout California support covering all kids with support never dipping below 78% and going as high as 88%.

Voters prefer a shared solution that has both employers and employees contributing to ensure all kids have health insurance. Voters recognize that employers should be part of the solution to cover all kids, but prefer voluntary employer participation (over mandates). They also believe both employers and employees should contribute. And voters support providing tax credits to businesses and employees.

• 54% of voters believe that we should make it voluntary for employers to provide health insurance for the children of their employees, while only 30% support a required mandate.
• Voters want employers and employees to share the cost as 64% of voters believe employees should have to pay for at least a portion of the premiums for their children.
• After being read a description of the state’s Healthy Families Program, 83% support Healthy Families and see it playing a role in providing health care to children.
• Additionally, 75% of voters favor allowing businesses to participate in Healthy Families as a way to provide health insurance for children of their employees.
• 84% support providing tax credits to employers who provide health insurance for the children of their employees and 77% support providing tax credits to employees to help them pay for private insurance offered by their employers.

The United Ways of California and local United Ways are strong advocates of finding a statewide solution to cover all kids in this state. The United Ways work closely with local community and business leaders, legislators and others to promote this achievable and important goal.