Those looking for good news last week were not drawn to the subject of healthcare.
The Los Angeles County public health system reported that it was facing enormous budget deficits that are expected to balloon to $1.2 billion annually by 2011. Additional reporting in The Times showed that patients, having lost health insurance or under other financial threat, are putting off doctor visits meant to keep medical conditions from spiraling out of control.
In short, both the public healthcare system and the private system are feeling the effects of the recession, which has lofted the state's unemployment rate to the highest level in 25 years, decimated housing prices and retirement savings and shot fear through the ranks of the jobless and the still-employed alike.
Add to it this missive from state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who last week implored Californians not to drop their legally required car insurance as they ponder how to make ends meet. Poizner called attention to a low-cost auto insurance program available to eligible good drivers.
Taken together, it was hard to miss: As the government's safety net has frayed dramatically under the weight of record levels of applicants for food stamps, unemployment and other assistance, the private safety net that is supposed to provide a soft landing in hard times is wearing away as well.
A survey this year by the Insurance Research Council, an industry study group, found that in 2007, an estimated 18% of California drivers were uninsured, and it said that it expected "a sharp rise" in that category because of the foundering economy. The survey said that as the unemployment rate goes up a point, the uninsured rate climbs by almost as much.
Given that the unemployment rate has risen by almost five points since 2007, it would mean that close to one in four California drivers now lacks insurance. That puts the uninsured in legal jeopardy and raises the prospect that insured drivers will increasingly be involved in accidents with the uninsured.
Insurance industry officials were, along with Poizner, strongly recommending that Californians find some other way of saving money.
"Penny-wise decisions may become pound foolish in the future," said Pete DeMarco, corporate relations manager in California for Allstate. He said the company would recommend that its 1,200 independent brokers work with their clients to keep them in the system.
