Public perceptions of AHCCCS and estimates of eligibility for enrollment in publicly-funded health care programs: results of telephone surveys in metropolitan Tucson

Two weeks before the Arizona Care Cost Containment System was implemented, only 19% of people interviewed in a telephone survey in Pima County had heard of the program. The principal population surveyed was selected because it was of diverse ethnic composition and contained a significant number of lower socioeconomic families. On the basis of income and family size data, we estimated that, within that population, at least half again as many families as were then enrolled might be eligible under the existing AHCCCS guidelines. We also found that there was still a larger group with total annual family earnings of less than $8,100, many of whom lack health insurance; the so called 'notch group.' Decreasing the number of Arizona's eligible in order to cut AHCCCS program costs will inevitably increase the already large number of medically underserved.