Center in the News

Empowering people living in Watts to become their own environmental justice advocates by training them as citizen scientists who can gather data and map hazards and assets. Offering Asian youth in the San Gabriel Valley culturally sensitive mental health and well-being lessons  that combine teachings about nutrition, sleep and regular physical activity with traditional Chinese medicine practices. These ambitious and practical ideas to narrow or eliminate longstanding disparities in health care are among those proposed by the 15 finalists in the third annual Health Equity Challenge, which is

A new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that there are 174,200 transgender immigrants in the United States and 41,000 transgender immigrants in California, comprising over one-quarter (27%) of the state's adult transgender population. Using data from the California Health Interview Survey, reseachers examined demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics of transgeneder adult immigrants in California.

Covered California leaders have stressed time and again that no one can predict when they’ll need health insurance, and Dyer’s accidents show that serious injuries can occur even as people go about the routine aspects of daily life. The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research estimates that there are 1.3 million Californians who are uninsured but qualify for subsidies with Covered California or would be eligible for Medi-Cal.

In the first quarter of this year, Medi-Cal beneficiaries filed more than 115,000 complaints about the program — over 27,000 of which were related to provider availability and timely access to care. An analysis from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that, after adjusting for socioeconomic and health status, Californians on Medi-Cal were more likely to report having no usual source of care, being told a doctor wouldn’t accept their health insurance, and having not seen a doctor in the past year.

The new UCLA policy brief shows significant mental health disparities among immigrant groups in California. Recent immigrants residing in the U.S. for less than five years experienced a 140% increase in severe psychological distress, from 5% (2015–17) to 12% (2019–21).

In San Francisco, the share of people 65 and older who said they'd used cannabis within the last month increased from 10% in 2017 (a year after marijuana was legalized in California) to 13.7% in 2022, according to the latest data from the California Health Interview Survey.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies are widely known to have harmful impacts on mental health, but a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has revealed large disparities in rates of serious psychological distress across immigrant subgroups in California.

Language barriers like these can lead to serious medical mistakes. They’re also hurdles for people who don’t speak English efficiently trying to access basic health care ... research shows that as the Latino population continues to increase in California, the number of Latino physicians who are culturally competent and speak Spanish is not meeting the demand. Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a health policy professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health, co-authored a report on this issue, The Latino Physician Crisis. 

What Republicans such as Trump or DeSantis might try to do with the ACA remains to be seen. A repeal of the law could have far-reaching effects.

"About 55 million Americans would suddenly be uninsured, and insurance companies would once again be allowed to deny health insurance, or charge substantially higher premiums, to anyone with a pre-existing condition," said Gerald Kominski, senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. "This may be the world ideologues want us to live in, but it would be a public health disaster."

The winter version of PAD provides extended hours and free recreational activities at 31 LA County parks, including snow days, sports, exercise classes, dancing, healthy cooking classes, movies, concerts, computer courses, health outreach, and social service resource fairs. According to a recent evaluation by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, 92 percent of people who attended a nighttime events program in L.A. County parks in the summer of 2022 felt safe. The program was also highly rated by attendees for giving them the chance to spend quality time with family.