This brief examines whether Medi-Cal enrollment patterns during 2025 are consistent with a chilling effect associated with heightened immigration enforcement activity. The findings are descriptive and should not be interpreted as establishing a causal relationship. However, they provide evidence of enrollment patterns that are consistent with broader concerns about immigration enforcement and access to health coverage. Authors compared monthly enrollment trends in California’s Medi-Cal expansion and non-expansion populations throughout 2025, focusing on the second half of the year when immigration enforcement activity became more intense, visible, and widely publicized. They then examined enrollment changes by race and ethnicity and compared observed enrollment declines with ICE arrest activity to assess whether enrollment patterns were consistent with a potential chilling effect associated with heightened immigration enforcement activity.

Findings: 

• Adult Medi-Cal expansion enrollment reversed course after mid-2025, declining by nearly 71,000 individuals from June to December 2025. 
• Enrollment declines were more than twice as large among adult Medi-Cal expansion enrollees (4.8%) as among non-expansion enrollees (2.3%) during the second half of 2025. 
• Both Latino (5.5%) and non-Latino (6%) expansion enrollees experienced enrollment declines after mid-2025. 
• Enrollment patterns among the expansion population suggest a potential chilling effect beyond the direct effects of ICE arrests.

Authors conclude that the findings are consistent with a chilling effect associated with heightened immigration enforcement activity in California during 2025.

This article features Arturo Vargas Bustamante, senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

This data brief highlights key facts about how Latino law students financed their legal education during the 2019–2020 academic year using data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). While estimates reflect financing patterns from the 2019–2020 academic year, they provide important context for understanding which students may be most affected by recent federal loan limits. Estimates with standard errors exceeding 50% of the estimate are not reported. 

Findings:  

• During the 2019–2020 academic year, Latino students attended law schools with lower costs ($42,000 median annual cost) of attendance than their non-Latino peers ($59,000 median annual cost).
• 84% of Latino law students took out federal loans to cover their educational expenses for the 2019 to 2020 academic year, compared with 65% of non-Latino law students. They also borrowed more money ($38,000 median amount, compared to $31,000 for non-Latinos).
• Half of Latino law students (50%) relied on Graduate PLUS Loans to cover their educational expenses for the 2019 to 2020 academic year, compared to 41% of non-Latino students. Notably, as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Graduate PLUS Loan program will be terminated.
• 84% of Latinos in law school reported borrowing unsubsidized loans (i.e., unsubsidized Stafford Loans) compared to 65% of non-Latinos.
• Less than half of Latino law students (48%) received grants, which are not obligated to be repaid) to cover their law school expenses during the 2019 to 2020 academic year, compared to almost three-fourths (72%) of their non-Latino peers.  
• During the 2019 to 2020 academic year, Latino students were more than twice as likely as non-Latino students to use credit cards to pay for tuition and fees (33% vs. 16%). 

This article features Arturo Vargas Bustamante, senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR).

This fact sheet examines gasoline spending alongside housing cost burdens and transportation patterns to better understand how rising gasoline prices are intensifying affordability pressures across households in California, with a focus on disparities affecting Latino households. This analysis draws on multiple data sources, including the 2022 and 2023 Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), the 2024 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample (ACS PUMS), and the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) California add-on. Authors combine information on gasoline expenditures, vehicle ownership, and travel behavior to estimate how recent gasoline price increases affect household gasoline costs.

Findings: Rising gasoline prices are placing a disproportionate burden on Latino households in California. Latino households tend to have longer commutes, rely more on driving, and are more likely to rely on older and less fuel-efficient vehicles than non-Latino households. These patterns increase both gasoline spending and overall exposure to rising gasoline costs, while higher housing cost burdens, particularly among renters, further limit households’ ability to absorb these additional expenses.

Importantly, these dynamics were already present before the most recent increases in gasoline prices, suggesting that current affordability pressures may be even more severe. Even if gasoline prices decline, reductions are often gradual, meaning Latino households remain vulnerable not only to current cost pressures but also to future price increases.

This article features Arturo Vargas Bustamante, senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR).

Authors analyzed the association between cost-related delayed or forgone health care and emergency department (ED) visits among Latino adults in the U.S. in this cross-sectional study of 17,344 Latino adults aged 18 to 64 years from the National Health Interview Survey. Authors estimated within-group differences in ED visits by language, place of birth, heritage, citizenship status, and insurance status, after adjusting for delayed or forgone care.

Findings: Respondents who reported cost-related delayed or forgone care had significantly higher odds (78%) of reporting at least 1 ED visit in the past 12 months compared with those who did not report delaying or forgoing care. Females and individuals with lower educational attainment, public insurance, non-Mexican heritage, and poorer self-rated health had higher odds of at least 1 ED visit. Compared with U.S.-born individuals, those born outside the U.S. had 25% lower odds of having at least 1 ED visit