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Dr. Veronica Terriquez UCLA CSRC

UCLA LPPI Hosts 4th Annual Policy Briefing

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UCLA LPPI Hosts 4th Annual Policy Briefing
By Cesar Montoya

Since the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute launched, it has worked to ensure that Latino voices are front and center in policy discussions and that our state leaders know that every issue is a Latino issue. Last month, as the state legislature and governor debated budget priorities, the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (UCLA LPPI) brought policy experts, advocates, and legislative staff together for its 4th Annual Policy Briefing in Sacramento. To a packed room with over 20 legislative offices and community partners represented, UCLA LPPI experts presented research and critical insights on some of the most pressing issues affecting the Latino community in California. Through a series of presentations, legislative and advocacy partners delved into housing insecurity, COVID’s impact on youth transitioning into adulthood and the implementation of Medi-Cal expansion to undocumented residents.

Dr. Veronica Terriquez

Dr. Veronica Terriquez UCLA CSRC

UCLA LPPI Advisory Board Member, and Altamed Health Service Vice President of Government Relations, Berenice Nuñez Constant moderated the briefing, which featured UCLA LPPI Experts Dr. Veronica Terriquez, Dr. Melissa Chinchilla and Dr. Arturo Vargas Bustamante. Nuñez Constant expertly led the convening, drawing on her extensive experience supporting health needs for Latino communities, from engagement to healthcare access.

Dr. Terriquez, director of the UCLA Chicano/a Studies Research Center, kicked off the expert research presentations with a focus on youth transitions to adulthood during the COVID-19 recovery. Dr. Terriquez has centered her research on various topics, including youth transitions, civic engagement, social inequality and immigrant integration. During her presentation, she shared sobering statistics about how the pandemic impacted Latinx youth’s economic stability, education rates and voting trends. She shared that based on her recent surveys, “one in three community college student Latinas is caring for senior citizens or young children” and that these young Latina college students often serve as the new safety net for their families. She further noted that families’ reliance on these young women results in more significant difficulties for Latinas seeking to transfer to a four-year college program and complete their degrees. Dr. Terriquez also shared that Latinx youth voter participation dipped during the pandemic. During the most recent midterm election in 2022, for voters between 18-34, only 22% of Latinx voters participated, compared to 39% of their non-Latinx counterparts. Dr. Terriquez concluded by emphasizing how these sobering statistics speak to the need to create targeted support systems for Latino youth, such as investing in nonpartisan engagement efforts that dispel myths, educate new voters, and strengthen the connection between youth and their local communities.

UCLA LPPI faculty expert Dr. Melissa Chinchilla then presented on Latino homelessness: a growing crisis for California municipalities. Her presentation focused on the rise in Latino homelessness and offered policy recommendations to address some of the underlying housing services issues. Given the large undercount of homelessness amongst the Latino community, briefing attendees considering affordable housing solutions in their respective communities across the state found Dr. Chinchilla’s presentation particularly engaging. After the briefing, Dr. Chinchilla shared, “As a researcher, I strive to inform the development of evidence-based practices that will lead to tangible improvements in our communities. This year I was able to share our work on Latino homelessness and uplift central policy solutions to ensure that government serves our communities equitably.” She added, “Research should not exist in a vacuum, and UCLA LPPI’s Annual Policy Briefing is a critical forum for us to ensure that our research is translated into policy impact.”

Arturo Vargas Bustamante

Dr. Arturo Vargas Bustamante

Finally, UCLA LPPI Faculty Director of Research Dr. Vargas Bustamante closed out the day with a discussion on implementation issues related to Medi-Cal expansion to undocumented adults aged 50 and up. In his presentation, Dr. Vargas shared why the expansion of coverage is so vital to the state and how delays in implementation will impact the health of the state’s older Latinos.  In reflecting on the importance of these conversations, Dr. Vargas Bustamante said, “This policy briefing enabled us to highlight the significance of looking at the wellbeing of older immigrants as an integral part of California’s economy and society. Expanding Medi-Cal to older undocumented immigrants balances health equity and economic opportunity, ensuring that age and legal status are not barriers to care.”

After an engaging day of dialogue, Briefing participants walked away with robust policy recommendations and action items that can bring about transformative change for the Latinx community and other communities of color throughout California.

Click here to view video highlights from the day and here to view a photo gallery.

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Informing Policy in Real Time: UCLA LPPI in Sacramento

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The California Latino Legislative Caucus and UCLA LPPI staff gather for a photo that commemorates the second year of their partnership which aims to increase access to pertinent data science on Latinos.

By Celina Avalos and Sonja Diaz

On May 20, 2019, the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI) hosted its second annual California Latino Legislative Policy Briefing in Sacramento. The policy briefing, co-hosted by the California Latino Legislative Caucus and UCLA Government & Community Relations, featured research presentations by three LPPI faculty experts: Dean Gary Segura, Dr. Melissa Chinchilla and Dr. Arturo Vargas Bustamante.

The policy briefing was attended by 50 guests who are policy advocates, legislative staff, and community leaders. The meeting convened at La Cosecha in Sacramento where the group learned more about LPPI’s latest research findings and discussed policy interventions that could improve the lives of California residents.

LPPI expert Dr. Melissa Chinchilla and LPPI Executive Director Sonja Diaz introduce LPPI’s recent report on Latino homelessness to a packed house in La Cosecha.

Attendees heard from the LPPI faculty experts on a wide-range of domestic policy issues including voting, housing, and health. The issues discussed in the briefing are critical policy challenges that the California legislature is addressing through new lawmaking. Each issue has unique impacts on California’s plurality. Fortunately, LPPI’s legislative briefing provided a space for policy leaders to understand more clearly which policy solutions are better suited to address the disparities faced by Latinos.

Kicking off the policy briefing was Dean Segura, who presented his research on public opinion trends leading to the 2020 presidential election. In 2018, LPPI’s research documented a 77% increase in Latino votes cast. This increase was configured by looking at and comparing the midterm elections from 2014 to 2018. Dean Segura’s presentation expanded on trends identifying leading public opinion sentiments that influenced voters of color (Asian Americans, Blacks, and Latinos) on issues involving immigration, #MeToo, access to affordable health care, and support for gun laws. Largely, the 2018 election illustrated the upward potential of Latino vote growth in and beyond California. The numbers showed voters of color embraced Democratic positions on guns, health care, and immigration at higher rates than their white peers.

Next, Dr. Chinchilla followed with her research on homelessness in Los Angeles County. In her policy presentation on Latino homelessness, Dr. Chinchilla cemented the lack of accurate data on Latinos facing housing insecurity and reiterated the fact that this demographic group remains undercounted.

LPPI Policy Fellow Celina Avalos met UFW leader and advocate Dolores Huerta during visits to the State Capital discussing LPPI’s work on housing and health.

Highlighting findings from her LPPI report, Stemming the Rise of Latino Homelessness, Dr. Chinchilla shared that homelessness is not a one size fits all narrative. She stated, “Many factors contribute to the undercount of Latinos facing housing insecurity, like immigration status, economic vulnerability, and cultural and language barriers.”

Dr. Vargas Bustamante concluded the policy briefing with his work on the California Latino physician crisis, which addresses a key issue facing the state—the shortage of healthcare workers. Dr. Vargas Bustamante’s policy presentation integrated findings from his report, Latino Physician Shortage in California: The Provider Perspective. He shared, “As California’s plurality, Latinos will represent 44.5% of California’s population by 2050. However, currently only 4.7% of physicians in California are Latino.”

According to Dr. Vargas Bustamante, the contributing factors to the Latino physician shortage include: lack of financial support and opportunity, academic disadvantages, navigation, underrepresentation, and citizenship.

LPPI’s briefing provided a novel opportunity for leading policy stakeholders to engage in timely policy issues centered on the needs of the state’s plurality. This briefing builds upon LPPI’s legislative portfolio of engaging elected and appointed officials on critical policy issues with data and facts, breeding new research-practice partnerships and accelerating the capacity for evidence-based policy.

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UCLA LPPI Study Identifies Barriers Latino Students Face When Pursuing a Medical Career in California

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  • UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative study finds that Latino students pursuing a medical career in California must overcome significant barriers to successfully become physicians. The main barriers identified are: financial and opportunity cost, academic disadvantages, navigation, underrepresentation and citizenship.
  • Barriers to the medical profession further exasperate the Latino physician shortage in California. Policymakers, advocates and stakeholders must address the barriers encountered by Latinos in the medical profession to meet the health care needs of all residents.

The UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI), in collaboration with the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, recently released its fourth installation of policy reports addressing California’s Latino Physician Shortage. Authored by LPPI Faculty Research Expert Dr. Arturo Vargas-Bustamante and Lucía Félix Beltrán, Latino Physician Shortage in California: The Provider Prospective discusses the main barriers and sources of support identified by a sample of Latino pre-med students, medical school applicants, Latino medical students, and recently graduated Latino physicians.

This report finds that, “the medical profession is de facto not open to everyone.” Specifically, unequal backgrounds and opportunities, diverse career trajectories, and various barriers in the medical profession, such as underrepresentation of Latinos in the medical field or academic disadvantages, are creating major difficulties for Latino students seeking careers as physicians.

“This analysis by Bustamante and Beltran provides a critically needed and comprehensive examination of the pipeline from high school, through college, and into medical school faced by Latinx students.  Importantly, it examines the multiple causes of leaks from that pipeline using an innovative methodology incorporating the experiences of those students.  It is these leaks that impair California’s ability to generate the diverse physician workforce needed to care for the State’s increasingly diverse population.” says Dr. David Carlisle, President of Charles Drew University, a private, nonprofit University committed to cultivating diverse health professional leaders who are dedicated to social justice and health equity for underserved populations.

In 2015, Latinos became California’s plurality population with approximately 15.2 million Latinos residing in the state. By 2050, Latinos are estimated to represent 44.5% of the state’s population.[1] While the Latino population continues to grow, the supply of Latino physicians has not caught up.[2] The scarcity of Latino physicians in California has led to a deficit of 54,655 Latino physicians that are required to achieve parity with Non-Hispanic Whites.[3]

Pipeline programs and mentorship platforms partly address the barriers Latino students face to become physicians with support such as tutoring, mentorship, and exposure to the medical profession. However, these programs alone are unable to substantially change the low representation of Latinos in the medical profession.

Therefore, California must reduce the barriers faced by Latino physician hopefuls throughout the state. The report includes policy recommendations that directly address the barriers that unnecessarily complicate the navigation of medical education for Latinos. Policy recommendations outlined in the report include, increasing financial resources available to students who do not qualify for existing programs, such as those that require citizenship, or addressing academic disadvantages by coordinating and expanding pipeline programs that support students from middle school until medical school.

The need to address this deficit is increasingly pressing as the share of the Latino population increases in California, and as the demand for health care increases with population aging. Every year that California does not work to increase access of the medical education for Latino students, already inadequate access to high quality care worsens, ultimately impacting the overall healthcare outcomes of the state.

 

This research was made possible by a generous grant from AltaMed Health Services Corporation.

Read the full report at: latino.ucla.edu/health

About the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative:

The Latino Policy & Politics Initiative (LPPI) is a comprehensive think tank that addresses the most critical domestic policy challenges facing communities of color in states and localities across the U.S. LPPI fosters innovative research, leverages policy-relevant expertise, drives civic engagement, and nurtures a leadership pipeline to propel viable policy reforms that expand opportunity for all Americans. Learn more at: latino.ucla.edu

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[1] DOF. Projections. 2018; http://www.dof.ca.gov/Forecasting/Demographics/Projections/.

[2] Sanchez G., Nevarez T., Schink W., Hayes-Bautista D. E. Latino Physicians in the United States, 1980-2010: A Thirty-Year Overview From the Censuses. 2015(1938-808X (Electronic)).

[3] Hsu P, Balderas-Medina Anaya Y, Hayes-Bautista D. E. 5 Centuries to Reach Parity: An Analysis of How Long it Will Take to Address California’s Latino Physician Shortage. Los Angeles, CA: Latino Policy & Politic Initiative; October 2018 2018.

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