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Caregiving takes heavy financial, physical, mental toll

The first California Health Interview Survey data about caregivers available in more than a decade indicates that a sizable proportion of family and friend caregivers in California are struggling financially, experiencing physical or mental health problems, and receiving little if any financial support for their caregiving responsibilities.

California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)
The Los Angeles Times

I’ve written about L.A.’s mental illness crisis for almost 20 years. We have to do better

If we can identify all the impediments to good care, can’t we find the will to remove them and build a better system?

“I think we can,” said UCLA health policy research scientist Imelda Padilla-Frausto, a member of the L.A. County Mental Health Commission, who is big on homelessness prevention and early mental health intervention.
The county is housing thousands of people each year but the lifeboat is still taking on water. Padilla-Frausto calls for a greater “upstream approach” that targets social and economic needs early on, so that “we are not left bailing out a sinking boat.” She said

D. Imelda Padilla-Frausto
CalMatters

California eyes end to Medi-Cal premiums for children, vulnerable adults

Eliminating the premiums is likely to create more stable coverage for families over time, regardless of whether their income inches up or down, said Nadereh Pourat, associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

“It’s a good idea for those children not to cycle in and out, and the parents don’t have to worry about losing coverage if they can’t afford it in a given month,” she said.

Nadereh Pourat
ABC 10 San Diego

Sandy Hook families reach historic $73 million settlement with gun maker

Twenty children were killed and six adults and a subset of families have been working over 10 years to get some accountability by the manufacturer,” said Michael Rodriguez, professor at UCLA School of Public Health. “Guns, even though they're a consumer product, are not monitored or regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In fact, in 2005 Congress provided them immunity from being liable from any civil suits.

Gun Violence and Gun Safety
CALmatters

California launches ambitious effort to transform Medi-Cal to ‘whole person care’

Roughly 108,000 Medi-Cal patients were enrolled in county pilots and 15,000 in managed care pilots during a two-year period, according to an early analysis by UCLA researchers. As a result of the success, federal officials granted a waiver allowing CalAIM to move forward for the next five years. 

Nadereh Pourat
Healio

Older Asian American adults report lower life satisfaction

Clinical and public health professionals have been gearing up to take care of the growing aging population, yet not much is known on how best to support the needs of older adults,” Riti Shimkhada, PhD, a senior research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, told Healio.

Gun Violence and Gun Safety
Riti Shimkhada
Northern California Record

California single-payer health care bill held up before Assembly vote; fallout may affect election endorsements

A recent UCLA health policy research brief found that 94 percent of Californians have some form of health coverage as of 2021.

California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)
Health Affairs

Addressing The Interlocking Impact Of Colonialism And Racism On Filipinx/a/o American Health Inequities

Because data on Asian Americans remain aggregated, knowledge about FilAm issues goes widely unnoticed. At a surface level, Asian Americans appear healthier than Whites, lending credence that Asian Americans can be deemphasized in research, funding, and medical attention or interventions.

Ninez A. Ponce
Yahoo Finance

The MolinaCares Accord and UCLA Launch Health Equity Challenge

The MolinaCares Accord ("MolinaCares"), in collaboration with Molina Healthcare of California ("Molina"), today announced a $125,000 grant to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) to engage a diverse group of UCLA graduate students in developing solutions to California’s most pressing health equity concerns through the Health Equity Challenge. This grant is the latest partnership in the $1.6 million MolinaCares California Equity and Accessibility Initiative, launched in 2021 to advance health equity throughout the state.

Health Equity Challenge
The Sacramento Bee

What does ‘Medicare for all’ mean for California health care workers? What experts say

If the California Assembly bill promising government-run health insurance coverage for all becomes law, it would radically change the pecking order for health care workers, the companies that employ them and the patients they serve, according to health policy expert Jack Needleman. Primary care physicians would command better pay, for instance, while specialists would likely see the so-called single-payer system created by the proposed law push back on their rates, said Needleman, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at University of California, Los Angeles.

Jack Needleman