Racial Equity and Health Policy Program

This analysis examines disparities in access to air condition and their implications. It shows Asian-, Black-, and Hispanic-led households are more likely to report not having an air conditioning unit in their home compared to White households. Lower income households also are more likely than higher-income households to report this and other challenges.

Disparities in health and health care for people of color and underserved groups are longstanding challenges. This brief provides an introduction to what health and health care disparities are, why it is important to address disparities, the status of disparities today, recent federal actions to address disparities, and key issues related to addressing disparities looking ahead.

This data note analyzes health care expenditures for immigrants and U.S.-born people using data from the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey.

Medicaid programs are a major source of coverage for people of color and a potential mechanism to address racial health disparities. This issue brief provides insight into ways Medicaid can mitigate racial health disparities, how coverage may vary by race and ethnicity, and other Medicaid initiatives states pursuing to address racial disparities in health and health care.

This brief is focused on racial and ethnic disparities in mental health care, including use of mental health care, barriers to mental health care, the impact of prior experiences of unfair treatment or negative experiences with a provider on use of mental health care, and awareness of the 9-8-8 mental health hotline.

This analysis uses data on “animal production workers” from the 2022 American Community Survey to examine characteristics of workers who may be at risk for exposure to H5N1 avian influenza, which has been found in dairy cattle herds in nine U.S. states as of May 14, 2024. The analysis compares characteristics of these workers to all U.S. workers, to all workers in the H5N1-affected states, and draws out some implications. Among the findings are that animal production workers are more likely than workers overall to be Hispanic and noncitizen immigrants, as well as to be uninsured.

This brief examines Black women’s experiences in health care, including unfair treatment by providers due to race and their health outcomes as a result of this treatment. The brief also explores the association between racially concordant providers and positive health care experiences among Black women.

Noncitizen immigrants, particularly those who are undocumented, face significant barriers to accessing health coverage and care and are significantly more likely than citizens to be uninsured. Some states have taken up options in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to expand coverage for lawfully present immigrants and/or established fully state-funded programs to fill gaps in coverage for immigrants. This brief provides an overview of state health coverage programs for immigrants regardless of status and examines how health coverage for immigrants vary by state coverage policies using data from the 2023 KFF/LA Times Survey of Immigrants.

This brief discusses why and how federal standards for collecting race and ethnicity data have been revised, highlights some of the key changes to data collection and reporting starting in 2024, and discusses the implications of these changes. The brief also includes analysis of how self-reported racial and ethnic classifications have changed among the U.S. population over time.

The Florida legislation prevents city and county governments from requiring that employers, including government contractors, provide heat protections for outdoor workers outside of those required under state or federal law. These protections include requiring water breaks and other cooling measures for outdoor workers. The law could impact nearly 1.8 million nonelderly adult outdoor workers in Florida, who are disproportionately Hispanic and noncitizen immigrant workers.