Who uses CHIS?

Health care reform. Health insurance coverage. Chronic diseases. Health disparities. On a broad range of important health topics, California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data and results are invaluable tools for policymakers at the local, state and national levels. Health advocates, media, health care providers, foundations and researchers also depend on this rich source of population-based data for critical health information.

CHIS data has been used to ground dozens of important health initiatives, including:

California Health Care Reform:

Both California Governor Schwarzenegger's office and Democratic legislators used CHIS data to develop health care reform proposals. Governor Schwarzenegger also held a press conference at UCLA in which he cited a cornerstone CHIS publication - The State of Health Insurance in California - as important evidence of the need for health care reform. California State Senate Health Committee staff used CHIS data to assess coverage effects of each proposal. The Legislative Analyst Office used CHIS data to analyze the Governor's health care reform proposal for state legislators and for the report, The 2007-08 Budget: Perspectives and Issues. Advocacy groups on all sides of the issue also relied on CHIS data to inform their positions and craft their arguments.

Los Angeles fast food moratorium:

The Los Angeles Department of City Planning and the City Attorney used CHIS data in a UCLA Center for Health Policy Research publication, Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes, to help draft a City ordinance prohibiting the establishment of new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles. Using CHIS data, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research experts testified before both the California Senate Select Committee on Obesity and Diabetes and the Legislative Task Force on Diabetes and Obesity on the extent and causes of obesity and policy options to address the issue.

Increased access to food stamps for poor families:

A policy brief on food insecurity by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Food Policy Advocates prompted then-Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg to introduce AB 231 to increase participation in the federal food stamp program.

First 5 County Commissions:

More than a dozen First 5 county commissions - created by California voters to direct tobacco tax revenues to promote early childhood development - have used CHIS data to develop new public-private expansion programs for children ineligible for private insurance, Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. In most cases, CHIS has been the only data source available. First 5 agencies from Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Joaquin, Marin, San Luis Obispo and Tulare counties have relied on CHIS data to advocate for and plan these expansion projects, as has a coalition of commissions from Sacramento, Colusa, El Dorado, Yolo and Yuba counties.

Read more about CHIS Making an Impact (PDF).