Brian Wells is the data quality and survey methodology manager of the California Health Interview Survey. In this brief interview, Wells provides insight into what’s notable and new about the Adult Health Profiles and the Race and Ethnicity Health Profiles.
Q: What are Health Profiles?
The Health Profiles serve as a quick and easy resource to look at health behaviors, insurance enrollment, and other key health factors within the state using data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). The Adult Health Profiles provide this at regional and county levels, as well as the sub-county level for Los Angeles and San Diego Counties. The brand new Race and Ethnicity Health Profiles allow policymakers, media and everyday citizens to see those important health and health care factors for each of the major race groups within the state, as well as for Latino and Asian ethnic groups.
Q: What is one of the most interesting findings this cycle?
Seeing the full, if uneven, impact of the Affordable Care Act and how it has affected various groups within the state is most interesting to me.
According to the CHIS data, the adult uninsured rate across the state has dropped from 27 percent in 2011-12 down to nearly 17 percent in 2015-16. African-Americans in the state are seeing a record low uninsured rate with only 14 percent uninsured. Latinos had the largest drop in uninsured during this time, but still represent the largest uninsured group within the state with 26 percent still uninsured in 2015-16.
This illustrates the great strides we’ve made especially with expanding Medi-Cal enrollment, but also suggests we have a long way to go to help correct the health care disparities within our state.
Q: You’ve changed the format of the Race and Ethnicity Health Profiles to a dashboard. Will I still be able to print out my queries the way I could with the previous format (pdf)?
This feature is currently under development, but you'll be able to download reports soon. There is a tab in the dashboard where you will be able to download the report as a pdf with all of the key tables and graphs from the dashboard, or you can download the report as a csv (or comma delimited) file which makes it easy for media and researchers to have the health estimates easily accessible for reporting or making their own graphics.
Additional Information
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 improves the public’s health through high quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. UCLA CHPR is the home of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and is part of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and affiliated with the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.