In a study released Thursday, October 5 by UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research, numbers reveal that one in five Californians have no health insurance coverage. Statewide that figure amounts to some 6.5 million residents. These findings came in tandem with reports of small improvements in public health insurance enrollment for children as well as the availability of job-based benefits for adults.

In California in 2005 the reported percentage of adults receiving health insurance benefits as part of their employment climbed to 56.2 percent over the 55.1 percent reported in 2003. While these figures reveal a positive trend, they are not yet back on par with the 2001 figure of 57 percent.

Some 10.7 percent of children in the state went through all or part of 2005 without any health insurance coverage, an improvement from the 2001 figure of 14.8 percent. The UCLA survey analysis indicated that of the population of children going without medical coverage, some 50 percent may be eligible for public assistance programs but their parents and guardians are not making the necessary applications to have them enrolled.

The UCLA's study numbers are slightly worse than those for Orange County collated last year as part of the California Health Interview Survey, which revealed that 18.2 percent of Orange County residents have no health insurance and some 8.5 percent of adults actually declined medical attention during the year citing a lack of insurance as the reason.

The UCLA study additionally championed the passage of California Proposition 86 that calls for an increase in the state cigarette tax to $2.60 a pack with the revenue generated slated for use in health care. According to the UCLA study, this increase in available funding would be sufficient to provide insurance coverage for as many as 400,000 children in the state currently doing without.