Our Story
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) is one of the nation's leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California.
UCLA CHPR is the home of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the largest population-based state health survey in the nation, and is part of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Our Mission
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research improves the public’s health through high-quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. We advance this mission through policy analysis, policy-relevant research, public service, community partnership, media relations, and education.
Our Vision
Our vision is a health policy process driven by credible and comprehensive evidence, leading to equitable, impactful, and cost-effective laws, policies, and programs. We also believe data should be democratized and put into the hands of the public in ways that inform, educate, and result in grassroots-driven policy change. Ultimately, we aim to develop crucial evidence to support the elimination of persistent disparities in health and health coverage.
Meet the UCLA CHPR
UCLA CHPR improves the public's health by advancing health policy through research, public service, community partnership, and education. Hear more from Ninez A. Ponce, director.
The work of CHPR — and especially CHIS — has been instrumental to our work and mission. Like so many, we rely on CHIS to help us understand the health care experiences of California’s diverse communities, Medi-Cal members, and those who are uninsured. CHPR and the CHIS help us track in access and barriers to care, disparities between Medi-Cal members and other insured Californians, and disparities within the Medi-Cal population. This work underpins several of our health care almanacs, it helps inform our strategy, and it helps us the measure the progress that we — and the state as a whole — are making."
I think it's fair to say that the work that the Center has done on health insurance alone made a substantial contribution to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The Center has made major contributions to our understanding of the link between soda and childhood obesity. The Center has made major contributions to our understanding of the barriers to care in vulnerable populations and vulnerable communities. And the Center has made extraordinary contributions to our understanding of the powerful link between poverty and health status. I can’t think of too many organizations that have contributed more to our basic understanding of health in California and across the nation.”
