Center in the News
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.
Wellvolution, a digital health platform by Blue Shield of California, will now be more inclusive and accessible for Spanish speakers ... Hispanic communities in California are more likely to have difficulty finding a primary care doctor or specialist than other groups, likely due to language barriers, according to data from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research as compiled by The California Health Care Almanac.
Among Latinos and Asians living in California, immigrants are less likely than citizens to own a firearm and more likely to report being afraid of becoming a victim of gun violence, according to a new study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. "This study shows that the immigrant population's concern about gun violence is significant."