Report Rethinking the State-Local Relationship: Health Care By Shannon McConville, Kimberly Belshé Feb 12, 2013 The federal Affordable Care Act will transform California’s health care safety net. It could also affect California’s long-standing division of responsibilities between state and local governments. This report outlines key issues that state policymakers will need to consider as they grapple with the costs and opportunities of health care reform.
Report Access to the Health Care Safety Net in California By Laura Hill, Helen Lee, Shannon McConville Oct 18, 2012 How will the safety net fare under federal health care reform? This report highlights areas of anticipated strain by mapping safety net access across the state. It also identifies strategies for strengthening the safety net in times of ongoing fiscal challenge. This research was supported with funding from the California Program on Access to Care.
Report CalWORKs in Transition By Caroline Danielson Mar 20, 2012 In recent years, California policymakers have made a number of cuts to major safety net programs to help balance the state budget—even as hard economic times have meant that increasing numbers of Californians are relying on government assistance. The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids program (CalWORKs) has been one of the most affected.1 Since 2009, CalWORKs has seen a number of cuts, some intended to be short-lived, and others that, arguably, are reshaping the program piece by piece. In his January 2012 budget proposal, Governor Brown advocated significant additional cuts. These recent and proposed changes raise questions about the program’s goals going forward.
Report California’s Food Stamp Program: Participation and Cost Challenges for the State By Caroline Danielson, Jacob Alex Klerman Sep 16, 2011 California’s food stamp program, known as CalFresh, is a critical piece of the state’s safety net and serves 3.8 million Californians. More than half are children. Yet compared to other states, fewer eligible Californians actually participate, and the state’s administrative costs are higher. Examining historical data from all 50 states, the authors find that ending mandatory fingerprinting of adult CalFresh enrollees would likely increase participation and reduce costs.
Report How Can California Spur Job Creation? By David Neumark Feb 3, 2011 California has both short- and long-term unemployment problems. This report examines the effectiveness of two direct job creation policies: hiring credits – subsidies to employers to hire workers – and worker subsidies – subsidies to individuals to enter the labor market. In the short-term, a well-designed hiring credits program is a more effective response to downturns in the business cycle. In the long term, worker subsidies are a better way to address the state’s chronic unemployment problems. This report was supported with funding from the Donald Bren Foundation.
Report Sanctions and Time Limits in California’s Welfare Program By Deborah Reed, Caroline Danielson Apr 6, 2009 In an effort to boost the share of adults on welfare who work, the state has considered proposals to further reduce or eliminate payments to those receiving aid through CalWORKs—the state's welfare program for needy families—who don't work or seek work. This report examines possible effects of these stricter sanctions. The findings suggest that in general, the state's work participation rate could rise, the welfare caseload could shrink, and the poverty rate among children would not be greatly affected if stricter sanctions were adopted.
California Counts, Report Death in the Golden State: Why Do Some Californians Live Longer? By Helen Lee, Shannon McConville Aug 29, 2007 Despite overall gains in life expectancy over the past century, significant disparities exist in longevity among California’s different racial and ethnic groups. This issue of California Counts provides a detailed demographic portrait of the state’s mortality rates and causes of death. The authors find that for almost all chronic conditions and injuries except suicide, black men and women have higher age-adjusted death rates than whites. Many of these black-white disparities persist even among similarly educated individuals. Hispanics and Asians have a mortality advantage over whites for almost all diseases and injuries and across education levels, with some important exceptions such as cirrhosis and diabetes among Hispanics.
Report Health Insurance, Health Care Use, and Health Status in Los Angeles County By Weiyi Shi, Marianne Bitler Dec 19, 2006 In this report, Marianne Bitler and Weiyi Shi look at how adults and children in Los Angeles are faring in the health arena, paying attention to differences across racial and ethnic groups. The authors focus particularly on Hispanics, a large and growing part of the state’s population. They also analyze outcomes according to nativity and immigration status. The ability to differentiate between documented and undocumented immigrants is relatively rare, and is possible because of the unique, high-quality, individual-level data included in the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS), the primary data source for the report.
