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LOS ANGELES — Most Californians favor paying higher taxes to help everyone have affordable health care, according to a poll released Thursday. 

The poll commissioned by the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found 72 percent would approve paying as much as $50 a year more in taxes if it meant the money would be used to provide affordable health care to the working poor. 

“Almost seven million Californian’s lack health insurance,” said Dr. Lew Sandy, executive vice president of the Princeton, N.J., foundation. 

These are people who have less than $28,000 a year in annual household income for a family of three, he said. 

The survey of 600 adults also showed that a slightly greater number of respondents – 77 percent – said they support the use of federal surplus funds to solve the problem nationally. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. 

The results were released on the first day of an industry conference titled “Health Coverage 2000: Meeting the Challenge of the Uninsured.” The meeting in Los Angeles was cosponsored by Families USA and the Health Insurance Association of America, among other health-care advocacy groups. 

The survey also found that: 

• 77 percent of respondents favored access to affordable health care by everyone, even it costs them more 

• 88 percent agreed a Bush administration and Congress should prioritize their agendas to include passing new laws to help the uninsured 

The public opinion poll was conducted in California by Public Opinion Strategies and Lake Snell Perry and Associates, two national polling firms.