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 or ethnicity, immigration status, income, or ZIP code. CHCF is working with a wide range of partners to break down structural barriers to care and create a health care system that is designed to redress, not perpetuate, the inequities that too many of our fellow Californians face.

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Advancing Black Health Equity

Health Equity, Workforce

CHCF is working with partners to understand the health care experiences of Black Californians and to reform the system to be more responsive to and effective at meeting their needs.

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.

External Resource

THE CONVERSATION / LA CONVERSACIÓN

A new bilingual video campaign featuring Latinx doctors, nurses, and promotores addresses information needs about the COVID-19 vaccines in the Latinx community. THE CONVERSATION/LA CONVERSACIÓN is produced by KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) and presented with UnidosUS. CHCF is proud to sponsor with the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, and Sierra Health Foundation.

Clinics Respond to Anti-Asian Hate with Many Kinds of Support

Xenia Shih Bion

Health Equity, Behavioral Health

Health centers serve as care providers, social services connectors, and community advocates, and they stepped up to help patients navigate the tribulations of the COVID-19 era.

CIN Connections, Spring 2021 — Addressing Racism to Improve Health

In this issue of CIN Connections, CIN partners explore how racism drives health inequities on many levels and leads to higher mortality, strategies to ensure equity, and how to develop an anti-racist organization.

Homelessness and Health Care: Lessons and Policy Considerations from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Center for Health Care Strategies

Homelessness & Health Care

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained communities and health care systems across the country. Among the challenges: how to best meet the health care needs of people experiencing homelessness. This brief, part of a series by the Center for Health Care Strategies, synthesizes innovative approaches and key lessons for supporting the health care needs of Californians experiencing homelessness during COVID-19.

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.

Talking It Over

Xenia Shih Bion

A new campaign led by Bay Area comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell is providing Black communities with credible information about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Health Equity Focus Needed to Vaccinate Our Way Out of Pandemic

Health leaders should take immediate steps to encourage vaccine uptake among many demographic groups, including Black and Latinx adults, people with lower incomes, and younger adults.

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.

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, Lucy Rabinowitz

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.

Trump Public Charge Rule No Longer in Effect

On March 9, 2021 the Biden Administration stopped defending Trump-era public charge regulations against legal challenges and, the following week, formally withdrew the Trump regulation. As a result, the Trump Administration's public charge rule is no longer in effect. Immigrants and their families can seek medical care, including testing and treatment for COVID-19, without fearing immigration consequences due to public charge.

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.

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.

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.