The Labor Center’s health care research aims to inform federal, state, and local policymaking to improve access to health coverage and make health care more affordable for workers and their families. Our research especially examines policy impacts for California low-income and immigrant working families and communities of color. Many of our publications include projections from the California Simulation of Insurance Markets (CalSIM) model, jointly developed with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Our factsheet for calculating Modified Adjusted Gross Income under the Affordable Care Act is available here.
Who is and isn’t insured, coverage affordability, job-based health coverage, the ACA, Covered CA, and Medi-Cal.
Affordability of coverage and care, underlying cost trends, and solutions.
Access to health coverage for immigrant families, undocumented Californians, and those with DACA.
California Simulation of Insurance Markets model projections, reports, and methodology.
Monterey County has some of the highest hospital costs in the state. To better understand why health care costs are so high in this Central Coast county, there is an urgent need to collect and analyze data that can help point to causes and solutions to the problem.
Monterey County has some of the highest hospital costs in the state, and working families are struggling to pay their health care bills. To better understand why health care costs are so high in this Central Coast county, there is an urgent need to collect and analyze data that can help point to causes and solutions to the problem.
The California Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) will establish statewide and sectoral health care spending targets with the goal of achieving a more sustainable per capita rate of spending growth on health care provided by a range of health care entities. This policy brief will discuss the various economic indicators that can be used in setting the statewide target.
In this brief we estimate the new costs to the state resulting from SB 525 as well as the savings it would generate through reductions in safety net program enrollment of affected workers and their family members.
A new UC Berkeley Labor Center policy brief finds that the state cost of a proposed $25/hr minimum wage for health workers would be offset through reduced safety net spending on those workers and their families.
March 22, 2023
California’s Uninsured in 2024: Medi-Cal expands to all low-income adults, but half a million undocumented Californians lack affordable coverage options
November 7, 2022
A Historic Achievement: California expands Medi-Cal to all low-income residents
August 4, 2022
What’s at Stake for California Health Care Affordability in the Inflation Reduction Act?
April 28, 2022
How will Californians’ health coverage sources change when the public health emergency ends?
April 14, 2022
California’s biggest coverage expansion since the ACA: Extending Medi-Cal to all low-income adults
According to a recent study by the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center, almost 50% of healthcare workers’ families are enrolled in safety-net programs like Medi-Cal.
A health worker wage hike is expected to benefit an estimated 469,000 employees, including people who make slightly more than $25 but who would likely get a corresponding pay increase, according to an analysis by UC Berkeley’s Labor Center.
The plan backed by SEIU California would primarily benefit workers in home health, skilled nursing facilities and outpatient clinics, a brief from the UC Berkeley Labor Center shows.
The UC Berkeley Labor Center estimates the higher wages will result in a median 3.2% change in operating costs, with variations across different types of facilities.
Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, has expanded coverage in recent years, notably to residents living in the county without legal permission. By 2024, approximately 92% of Californians under age 65 will be insured, the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center projected.
Laurel Lucia
Director, Health Care Program
Ken Jacobs
Labor Center Chair
Miranda Dietz
Research and Policy Associate
