Equity

A new study led by Dr. Jenny S. Guadamuz, Health Equity Program Director at UC Berkeley’s Center for Health Management and Policy Research (CHAMP), warns that federal data-matching updates are inadvertently masking true mortality rates for marginalized populations. Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the research reveals that while overall U.S. mortality estimates remained stable after a 2019 National Death Index linkage redesign, tracked mortality rates fell by over 30% for Latinx, Asian, and noncitizen populations. This artificial drop occurred because the new...

A new study published in JAMA and led by CHAMP faculty Timothy Brown finds that Extreme Risk Protection Orders which are commonly known as red flag laws were associated with a substantial reduction in firearm suicides, with no evidence that individuals turned to other methods when firearms were temporarily removed. The findings offer some of the most methodologically rigorous evidence to date that ERPOs function as effective, targeted public health interventions.

Firearm suicide represents a severe and growing public health crisis in the United States. In 2023 alone, firearms...

A new study lead by CHAMP faculty Jenny Guadamuz along with CHAMP trainee Stacy Chen, finds that California’s expansion of full-scope, state-funded Medicaid to undocumented adults led to modest gains in insurance coverage among older adults, but significant disparities in coverage remain for noncitizens across age groups.

California began expanding Medicaid eligibility regardless of immigration status in 2020 for young adults ages 18–25 and in 2022 for adults age 50 and older. Using nationally representative data from the American Community Survey (2017–2023), the team examined...