Californians indicated In a survey released Thursday that they want state leaders to put a priority on ensuring that people with mental health conditions can get access to treatment, with 49 percent saying it’s extremely important and 39 percent saying it’s very important.
The Kaiser Family Foundation and California Health Care Foundation designed and conducted the poll of 1,404 Californians in November and December, looking to gauge health care priorities and experiences in a state considered a leader in health-care trends. The study’s author noted that, while on the campaign trail, Gov. Gavin Newsom made health care a priority and announced sweeping plans for change in health care.
Survey findings offer a view of what state residents want, the survey authors said, as the new governor takes the reins and a new legislative session begins. Asked to rank what they felt state leaders should make their top priorities, poll respondents put improving public education in the top spot, but following closely behind was making health care more affordable.
While 86 percent of those surveyed considered improving public education very or extremely important, health care affordability ranked highly with 80 percent. Coming in third was making housing more affordable at 75 percent. The findings had an error rate of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Asked to assess what aspects of health care mattered most to them, survey respondents ranked expanding access to mental health care as most crucial. Next on the list was making sure all Californians have access to health care and third, lowering the cost of health care for Californians.
“About half — 52 percent — of Californians say their community does not have enough mental health providers to serve the needs of local residents, compared to 27 percent who say it does have enough and 21 percent who say they don’t know enough to say,” survey authors said.