During health care reform's 2014 implementation, up to two-thirds of California's 7 million uninsured population will become eligible for health insurance coverage, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

The policy brief, Two-thirds of California's 7 Million Uninsured May Obtain Coverage Under Health Care Reform, estimates 4.7 million Californians will likely be eligible for either the health insurance exchange or Medi-Cal expansion, which is based on county-by-county estimates of the number of Californians with job-based, public or private insurance in 2009 along with those who were uninsured for all or part of that year.

"This expansion will have a huge impact on the number of people without insurance," says Shana Alex Lavarreda, the lead author of the brief. "It will provide relief in the short term to millions of Californians who currently have no insurance options. And it will provide long-term relief to all residents by shifting the taxpayer emphasis from high-cost emergency room services to lower-cost preventative care."