California Individual and Family Health Insurance

Find California health insurance plans in the following metropolitan areas: Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and other locations.

California Health Insurance 101

Facts about California’s current health insurance state:

•    The Golden State is home to 36 million residents with an annual income of about $55,864. 
•    2,420,619 Californians purchase an individual health insurance plan for themselves or their families directly through health insurance providers.
•    The average monthly cost of a traditional co-pay policy on the individual market in 2006 was $204 for an individual and $617 for a family of four.
•    The average monthly cost of a traditional co-pay policy on the group market in 2006 was $646 for individuals and $3,103 for a family health insurance plan. 
•    Only 57% of California’s private sector companies offer an employer health insurance plan.
•    Only 46% of employers with 50 employees or less offer a small business health insurance plan.

More people are searching for health insurance coverage on their own these days because of the aforementioned facts. As your health insurance agent, InsureMonkey can help you if you need to find health insurance coverage outside of an employer health insurance plan, or if you need self employed health insurance.

California Health Insurance Providers

California’s High Risk Pool

California’s high risk pool is group of individuals formed together under the state legislature’s term of “high risk” because they have serious and ongoing health problems and cannot find an individual health insurance plan. This pool was set up by the state to help offset the high cost of individual health plans with a subsidy.  Approximately 7,790 Californians enrolled in the pool.  

Participants in pool pay between $404 and $833 per month for individual health insurance, while the state takes care of the remaining costs. In California, there is no deductible for individuals in the high-risk pool.
If you’ve been declined coverage and want to see if you qualify to join the high-risk pool, please contact the California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program at (800) 289-6574 or click http://www.mrmib.ca.gov/MRMIB/MRMIP.html.


California’s Uninsured

Though most people do have some type of individual health insurance coverage, there are around 6,701,890 California residents who are uninsured.  Some may be entrepreneurs who believe self employed health insurance is not affordable.  Others may simply be unemployed or work for companies that do not offer small business health insurance.  For anyone who falls into this category, InsureMonkey is here as your health insurance agent to provide you with in-depth information about your health insurance alternatives.


California SCHIP

The joint state and federal plan, known as SCHIP, provides for the health insurance premiums of uninsured children of low-income parents.  The parents of uninsured children who want to get this assistance must meet the family/household income requirements of falling between 100% and 200% of the poverty rate.  This means a family earning between $17,170 and $34,340 with uninsured children qualifies based on income eligibility.  Around 986,000 underprivileged children benefit from California’s SCHIP program.

For more information, please contact Healthy Families at (800) 880-5305 or click http://www.healthyfamilies.ca.gov/Joining/.


Medicaid in California

The Medicaid plan is a joint federal and state program that provides for the health insurance of low-income families, pregnant women, children, disabled individuals, the elderly and nursing home residents. 

There are other income eligibility guidelines as well:

•    Children
      o    Infants Ages 0-1:  $35,200 or 200% of the Federal Poverty Level
      o    Children Ages 1-5:  $23,408 or 133% of the Federal Poverty Level
      o    Children Ages 6-19:  $17,600 or 100% of the Federal Poverty Level
•    Parents
      o    Non-Working:  $17,600 or 100% of the Federal Poverty Level
      o    Working:  $18,672 or 106% of the Federal Poverty Level
•    Pregnant Women
      o    $35,200 or 200% of the Federal Poverty Level

For more information, please contact Medi-Cal at (800) 786-4346 or click http://www.medi-cal.ca.gov/default.asp.

(Facts throughout this page provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation at www.statehealthfacts.org and by The New Health Insurance Solution at www.tnhis.com.  Commentary provided by InsureMonkey.)


State Resources

State of California
Website: http://www.state.ca.us
 
Executive Office
Governor: Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) (213) 897-0322
Head of Health Department: David Maxwell-Jolly, Director, Department of Health Care Services (916) 445-4171
 
Senators
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) (415) 393-0707
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) (559) 497-5109
 
Medicaid
Website: http://www.dhs.ca.gov/mcs
Medicaid Director: Toby Douglas, Chief Deputy Director, Department of Health Care Services (800) 786-4346
Department of Insurance Website: http://www.insurance.ca.gov/