A report from the advocacy group Families USA found that 12 million Californians went without health insurance for at least a month during 2007 and 2008. That’s 37 percent of the state’s population.

Executive Director of Health Access California, Anthony Wright, says this shows how widespread the health care crisis is. 
 
“Being uninsured is not something that happens to only some people in California or America, it is a condition that all of us are faced with the potential of.” 
 
The survey found that of the 12 million Californians without insurance, more than 80 percent were from working families.
 
Another recent study from UC Berkeley estimates about 500,000 Californians have lost their health insurance since the start of the recession.