The Health Care Priorities and Experiences of California Residents

California, the nation’s most populous state and one with a diverse population in terms of race, ethnicity, income, and geography, has often been at the leading edge of national health care trends. A state that fully embraced the Affordable Care Act (ACA), California has the nation’s largest Medicaid program (known in the state as Medi-Cal) with a total enrollment of over 13 million, and the second-largest ACA marketplace enrollment of nearly 1.5 million, just behind Florida. California’s newly-elected governor, Gavin Newsom, made health care a prominent part of his campaign platform in 2018, and announced a sweeping set of health care proposals soon after being sworn in in January 2019.

In late 2018, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the California Health Care Foundation conducted a representative survey of the state’s residents to gauge their views on health policy priorities facing the state, as well as their experiences in the health care system. Key findings from the survey are presented here.