Center in the News
Re: AB1400 (xx) According to UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research, 94% of Californians already currently have health insurance and there is a remaining 6% who are uninsured. But, of the uninsured, 54% are eligible for subsidized health insurance and just chose to waive that available coverage option. The next biggest group of uninsured are undocumented immigrants — making up 41% of California’s uninsured population.
“Older adults and adults with disabilities are often stretched thin financially,” said Kathryn Kietzman, director of the center’s Health Equity Program and co-author of the research. “They’ve cut back on spending and even borrowed money but are still struggling to afford housing and food. For many, paying for any amount of caregiving help is out of reach.”
In two new studies, Kietzman and Lei Chen, a graduate student researcher at the Center, analyzed the need for long-term services and support among adults age 65 and older and adults with disabilities and assessed the financial constraints that limit options for such supportive care. The studies used data from the 2019–20 California Long-Term Services and Supports Survey (LTSS), a follow- to UCLA CHPR’s California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).
But studies show that, for immigrant families, the presence of policing, arrests and deportations in their communities does not go hand-in-hand with good physical or mental health. It is destructive to their well-being.
Most epidemiological models have been restricted to infectious diseases, forecasting the spread of illnesses like malaria and COVID. But some researchers believe that it’s time to apply these tools to mental health services too. These scientists aim to create models to predict where issues like severe depression and suicide are most likely to crop up—and which interventions are most effective. By doing this, they hope to correct some of the mental health funding disparity.
“If I’m a lucky American who has employer-based healthcare, and I go to a doctor who every year says, ‘OK, here’s what's on the list of things you need to know and that we need to check on,’ I’m going to have a much better chance of doing the preventive measures, or identifying a risk factor, or treating it early and avoiding worse outcomes,” says Kathryn Kietzman, Ph.D., director of the Health Equity Program at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, in Los Angeles. “But, if someone without healthcare has something like hepatitis B or hypertension, which can go undetected for years, they
Data from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and 2020 California Health Interview Survey indicate substance misuse and mental health challenges continue to rise, with 1 in 7 San Diegans ages 12 years and older reporting drug use or serious psychological distress in 2020, highlighting the need for broader, more normalized behavioral health care.
“As COVID-19 began spreading across the state in spring 2020, the California Health Interview Survey jumped into action, collecting critical data on Californians’ experiences with COVID-19, including positivity rates, views on vaccine, personal and financial impacts of the pandemic, and conflict during stay-at-home orders,” says Todd Hughes, CHIS director. “Two years later, we are continuing to add new COVID question to CHIS to provide decisionmakers with the data needed to help their communities.”
My family was just one of many who did not have secure healthcare. In the 2018 California Health Interview Survey, approximately 10% of residents within the city of Rosemead reported not having health insurance.
Enhanced premiums, which were set to run out this year, will be retained under Congress' spending bill, benefitting Covered California policyholders, said Gerald Kominski.