Health Equity - California Health Care Foundation

Health Equity
All Californians deserve the opportunity to achieve their fullest potential for health. But too many Californians today face unacceptable barriers to care because of their race, ethnicity, immigration status, or ZIP code. CHCF is working with a wide range of partners to prioritize health equity and create a health care system that meets the needs of all Californians.

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External Resource

Recovery with Limited Progress: Impact of California Proposition 209 on Racial/Ethnic Diversity of California Medical School Matriculants

New report by the Healthforce Center at UCSF shows lingering impacts of Proposition 209 on racial diversity in California medical schools. It also identifies proven solutions with potential for even more impact.

Improving Birth Equity in California’s Health Care System

Maternal Health, Health Equity

Improving Birth Equity in California's Health Care System is a quality-improvement initiative designed to improve birth care, experiences, and outcomes for, by, and with Black mothers and birthing people in California.

Listening to Black Californians: Racism and Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic

December 2, 2020

Black Californians are being hit hard by the compounding stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic and the structural racism that they have always lived with.

COVID-19 in California’s Nursing Homes: Factors Associated with Cases and Deaths

Cal Hospital Compare, UCSF, IBM Watson Health

Nursing homes — compared to other health care facilities — have been carrying the heaviest burden of COVID-19 cases and deaths in California and across the nation. Researchers analyzed numerous potential factors that may have put California nursing home residents at increased risk of infection and mortality from this virus.

Biden’s Panel Outlines Proactive Pandemic Response as COVID-19 Toll Soars

November 16, 2020

Xenia Shih Bion

Health Equity, Expanding Health Coverage

Stories That Caught Our Attention: President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have wasted no time preparing their response to the rapidly worsening coronavirus pandemic.

More Health Tech Investors Pushing for Diversity, Inclusion

December 1, 2020

Investing in Innovation

Like leaders in many organizations and institutions, some in the venture capital industry are taking action to stop perpetuating health care inequities.

It’s Time for California to Solve the Double Standard of Care

October 25, 2019

Sandra R. Hernández

Progress requires the entire health care system to demonstrate leadership. Count on CHCF to be an active partner in this vital effort.

Working Californians Enrolled in Medi-Cal Share Their Stories

NORC at the University of Chicago, UC Berkeley Labor Center

Medi-Cal covers close to three million working Californians. Many became eligible because the ACA expanded the program to more adults with low incomes. This report combines key findings from survey data with insights from in-depth interviews with enrollees to paint a picture of working Californians who rely on Medi-Cal, why they came to enroll in the program, and the role it plays in their lives.

When Inequity Gets Measured, It Gets Managed

October 19, 2020

Xenia Shih Bion

Stories That Caught Our Attention: How California is trying to ensure that its 58 counties don't overlook the health of neighborhoods most deeply affected by COVID-19.

Listening to Californians with Low Incomes

Jen Joynt, Rebecca Catterson, MPH, Lucy Rabinowitz, MPH

Listening to Californians with Low Incomes: Health Care Access, Experiences, and Concerns Since the COVID-19 Pandemic is a compilation of early findings from a statewide survey of the health care experiences of California’s residents. The survey included an oversampling of residents with low incomes.

Improving the Health of Black Women in California

October 2, 2020

Claudia Boyd-Barrett

Behavioral Health, Health Equity, Maternal Health

An interview with Sonya Young Aadam, CEO of California Black Women's Health Project.

COVID-19 Tracking Poll: One in Five Californians Knows Someone Who Died of COVID-19

September 3, 2020

Kristof Stremikis

Black and Latinx Californians are more likely than white Californians to know someone who has died of the new coronavirus.

Changes to Public Charge Rule

On August 12, 2019, the federal government finalized radical changes to “public charge” rules in an effort to disqualify many immigrants from gaining permanent residency in the US. The rule went into effect in California on February 24, 2020, even as multiple legal challenges continue to move through the federal courts. The US Citizenship and Immigration Service has announced that immigrants can seek testing, treatment, and prevention of COVID-19 without fearing immigration consequences due to public charge.

Why Nursing Homes Become COVID-19 Hot Spots

Xenia Shih Bion

Stories That Caught Our Attention: Before the deaths began to mount, geriatricians knew what was about to happen.

Podcast Project Captures Voices of Black Health Care Workers

Steven Birenbaum

More than 200 health care workers have signed up to participate.

Coronavirus Doesn’t Recognize Man-Made Borders

Xenia Shih Bion

Stories That Caught Our Attention: The COVID-19 crisis is straining the local health care systems on both sides of the US-Mexico border.

Racism Fuels Double Crisis: Police Violence and COVID-19 Disparities

Xenia Shih Bion

Expanding Health Coverage, Health Equity

Stories That Caught Our Attention: Systemic racism undergirds COVID-19 health disparities and the plague of police violence, both of which kill Black Americans at disproportionately high rates.

Black Lives Do Matter

Sandra R. Hernández

No one should tolerate a system that devalues Black lives.

Staying Home: Not an Option Available to All

Xenia Shih Bion

Stories That Caught Our Attention: Many workers must choose between staying home when ill or going to work sick so they can keep getting paid.

Lifting Up Solutions that Support Black Mothers

Xenia Shih Bion

Maternal Health, Health Equity

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Amid all the excellent media coverage of the US maternal mortality crisis, something has been missing. "Too much reporting on Black maternal health has been doom and gloom," says one California nursing professor.

Efforts to Reduce Black Maternal Mortality Complicated by COVID-19

Xenia Shih Bion

Maternal Health, Health Equity

Stories That Caught Our Attention: How can we support Black mothers and birthing people during a pandemic that is amplifying health disparities?

COVID-19 Shines a Harsh Light on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

Xenia Shih Bion

Expanding Health Coverage, Coverage Trends, Medi-Cal

Stories That Caught Our Attention: How the epidemic is exacerbating the health disparities that have long burdened people of color.

COVID-19: A Perfect Storm of Health Care Inequality

Sandra R. Hernández, Kara Carter

Unacceptable societal barriers put people of color at greater risk in the epidemic. How will California respond?

2020 Edition — Quality of Care: Maternal Health and Childbirth

Maternal Health, Health Equity

This set of quality measures focuses on maternal health and childbirth.

2019 Edition — Health Disparities by Race and Ethnicity

California is the most racially diverse state in the country, and addressing health disparities experienced by people of color is critically important. This Almanac report shows that people of color face barriers to accessing health care, often receive suboptimal treatment, and are most likely to experience poor outcomes in the health care system.