Health Equity - California Health Care Foundation

Health Equity
California has a critical stake in ensuring that all residents can get the health care they need. Today, too many Californians face unacceptable barriers to care because of their race, ethnicity, or immigration status. CHCF is working with a wide range of partners to eliminate these disparities and create a more equitable health care system for all.

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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.

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

Xenia Shih Bion

Expanding Health Coverage, Health Equity

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.

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: 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.

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.

Learning Lessons on a Journey Toward Health Equity

August 23, 2019

Sandra R. Hernández

Health care leaders need to be able to engage a diversity of perspectives in healthy and respectful dialogue in order to achieve meaningful progress.

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.

Race at the End of Life

Steven Birenbaum

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care, Health Equity

More than 150 years after the end of slavery, racial tension and mistrust of institutions surfaces in nearly every corner of American society. Our health care system is no exception — even at the end of life.

Quality of Care — Almanac Collection

Behavioral Health, Maternal Health

The Almanac reports in this collection examine the quality of health care in California. Topics include maternity care, behavioral health, chronic conditions, and providers.

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.