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State Health Policy

CHCF's Sacramento office provides policymakers and the media with a valuable local resource, and serves as a link to experts and resources at the foundation's Oakland headquarters.

Director, State Health Policy

Crystal Haswell

Policy Officer, State Health Policy

Health Equity Fellow, State Health Policy

Sacramento Office Manager & Program Associate, State Health Policy

Coverage Trends

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health insurance landscape changed dramatically in California. Fewer Californians are uninsured, more than one in three is now enrolled in Medi-Cal, and over a million purchase insurance through the ACA-mandated health insurance marketplace, Covered California. CHCF reports analyze and track trends in health insurance coverage, how much that coverage costs, and who remains uninsured.

Health Equity

All Californians should have the opportunity to achieve their fullest potential for health. CHCF is working with a wide range of partners to remove structural barriers to care and build a just and equitable health care system that is designed to redress, not perpetuate, the inequities that too many of our fellow Californians face.

Telehealth

Telehealth is the use of technology to better harness providers’ time and expertise and connect patients to the care they need more quickly and conveniently. For over a decade, CHCF has worked to expand the use of telehealth in the California safety net. This work takes on new urgency in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Workforce

Over the next decade, California faces a number of health workforce challenges, including a population that is growing, aging, and becoming more diverse. To meet these and other challenges, California must develop a modern health workforce that delivers smarter, more affordable care. That will require a new generation of health professionals with roles, skills, and workflows that match our latest understanding of how best to deliver high-quality, high-value care.

Focus on CalAIM

CalAIM is a multiyear reform led by the California Department of Health Care Services to improve the health outcomes and the overall well-being of Medi-Cal enrollees. Explore CHCF’s collection of tools and resources aimed at helping organizations understand and implement CalAIM.

Health Care Cost Commissions: How Eight States Address Cost Growth

Health Care Costs

This issue brief documents efforts in eight states that have established new independent commissions or increased the authority of an existing regulatory body to monitor and limit unnecessary growth in health spending.

Helping Californians Maintain Coverage After the Public Health Emergency

California’s success in avoiding unnecessary Medi-Cal disenrollment and smoothing transitions to other coverage will be crucial.

State and Federal Relief Prevented Deep Backslide in Health Care Affordability in California in 2020

Health Care Costs

This analysis of the 2020 California Health Insurance Survey shows that Californians were largely protected from experiencing a major erosion in their ability to pay for health insurance and care during the first year of the pandemic.

Data Exchange Explainer Series

Intrepid Ascent

CHCF's Data Exchange Explainer Series seeks to create a better understanding among stakeholders of statewide health information exchange. These four papers highlight other states' pathways to provide incentives for participation in data exchange, approaches to governance adopted by policymakers, digital identity management, and data sharing agreements.

Progress Since the California Future Health Workforce Commission

Progress Since the California Future Health Workforce Commission: State Policy and Budget Actions on Priority Recommendations provides an overview of how California has acted on Commission recommendations to grow and diversity its health workforce.

Medi-Cal Quality Strategy Explores Bold Steps Toward Health Equity

January 26, 2022

Christopher Perrone

The strategy will shape how health care will be provided to almost one in three Californians.

Advancing Data Exchange in California

This series of reports sponsored by CHCF is aimed at helping inform California decisionmakers about statewide data exchange. These reports focus on how other states have approached statewide health information exchange; the existing electronic health record networks, regional health information organizations, and competing infrastructure that currently exist in California; and the challenges and policy options for the state going forward.

Improving Quality in Medi-Cal Managed Care

Everyone in Medi-Cal, regardless of where they live or their managed care plan, should have the same opportunity to get timely, high-quality care. But today, access and quality of care varies widely within the Medi-Cal managed care system.

The Big Shortage: The Future of California’s Health Workforce

Workforce, Telehealth, Behavioral Health

California's health workforce faces major shortages. The good news? There's no shortage of workable solutions.

California Health Care Almanac

Objective information on health care costs, coverage, quality, and delivery supports effective decisionmaking. The Almanac provides data and analysis on California's health care system.

2020 Edition — Health Care Almanac Regional Markets Study

The markets included in the 2020 release — Humboldt/Del Norte, Los Angeles, Riverside/San Bernardino, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, and San Joaquin Valley, — reflect a range of economic, demographic, care delivery, and financing conditions in California.

Medi-Cal Explained

Medi-Cal is the foundation of California’s health care safety net and a major component of the state’s budget. The Medi-Cal Explained series provides an overview of the program, including the people it serves, the services it provides, and how it is organized, managed, and financed.

Controlling Health Care Costs

Health Care Costs

Health care is too expensive for many Californians. CHCF offers these resources that detail where health spending happens, why health care costs are increasing so rapidly, and what policymakers could consider to improve value in the system.

Listening to the Voices of Californians

CHCF believes that our health care system — especially public programs like Medi-Cal — should reflect the needs, experiences, and priorities of the people they serve. We engage in “listening work” to help policymakers and health care partners understand the experiences and attitudes of health care consumers, as well as the doctors, nurses, and other health professionals who provide frontline care.

A Primer on Dual-Eligible Californians

Amber Christ, Georgia Burke

Medi-Cal, Older Adults with Complex Needs

More than a million Californians receive health care coverage from both Medicare and Medi-Cal. These dual-eligible enrollees are older adults with low incomes and people with disabilities. The goal of the paper is to help stakeholders understand the complexities of service delivery for dual-eligible enrollees and to assess the impact of proposed changes on how enrollees can access care under both Medicare and Medi-Cal.

Hanging On to Coverage?

Katherine Wilson, Laurel Lucia

Coverage Trends

Millions of Californians lost jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. But early information from California’s insurance regulators suggests that — at least through June — the number of Californians with job-based health insurance has not changed as dramatically as feared. This may help partially explain why the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, has not yet experienced a big surge in enrollment.

Expanding Payer and Provider Participation in Data Exchange

This report outlines a spectrum of policy, contracting, and financing levers available to states working to advance interoperability, with a special focus on California's potential paths forward.

Health Workforce Strategies for California

This collection of publications examines the evidence on the impact of key health workforce policy interventions, such as pipeline and loan repayment programs, to achieve goals like diversifying the workforce, increasing the number of health professionals who provide care in a language other than English, and increasing access to care in medically underserved areas.