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.

At CHCF we use a variety of research tools in our listening work. These include the CHCF annual health policy survey, which focuses on the attitudes and experiences of Californians generally, as well as more targeted surveys of specific California populations. We also use qualitative methods like focus groups and in-depth interviews — by themselves or in tandem with surveys — to give us a richer and more nuanced picture of what Californians want and need from their health care system.