The home care industry is growing rapidly and coincides with increases in the growth of the elderly population, who are more frequently chronically ill and disabled and need assistance. This policy brief provides a profile of the home care industry and patients/consumers of these services in California, assessing available data on licensure and certification as a mechanism for promoting safety and quality of care. The findings indicate a dearth of information on the characteristics and care delivery of home care agencies and individual providers of nonmedical home care. The findings also illustrate that licensure and certification of home health agencies may enhance the capacity for improvements in quality of care. Establishing licensure and basic safety standards for home care agencies is a reasonable public health policy for reducing the potential for adverse consequences among the growing aging and disabled populations.

This report examines dental care utilization of California children and finds that disparities in dental visits exist, including lower rates of visits for Latino and African American children and those without dental insurance.

Specifically, the authors found that of the 7,240,000 school age children ages 5-17 in California, an estimated 504,000 missed at least one day of school due to a dental problem in the past year. The majority of these children report one missed day of school due to a dental problem, while the remaining 40 percent report missing two or more days. In total, California children report missing an estimated 874,000 school days due to dental problems.

The ability to afford needed dental care is the key difference between those children who miss school due to a dental problem and those who do not. The authors note that frequent absences may have significant negative societal and economic consequences and suggest that policymakers consider addressing gaps in coverage and access, as well as school-based dental care, among other recommendations.

The continued decline of employment-based coverage in California and more than 6.6 million uninsured residents are major reasons for concern, since health insurance is the primary means by which health care for employed persons and their families is financed in the state. California employers have different advantages in the provision of health insurance to their employees depending on their firm size. Unlike large and small firms, California's mid-size groups are thought to be particularly vulnerable due to lack of regulatory protection and lack of negotiating power. This brief characterizes California's mid-size market and explores whether there are viable options for enhancing the current market dynamics and improving the ability of mid-size firms to provide affordable health insurance to their employees. The first section describes key characteristics of insurance coverage in this market. The second section reports on a series of interviews with various stakeholders in this segment to identify viable options for market reform.

California has about 14% of the total number of dentists nationwide–the largest percentage of any state. This fact sheet provides county-by-county estimates of the distribution and characteristics of California's more than 31,000 licensed dentists, spotlighting dental health professional shortage areas and noting key demographic trends. This fact sheet presents a snapshot of licensed and actively practicing dentists in California in the third quarter of 2008. However, changes in licensure, practice status, and reported practice location of dentists continuously occur, leading to discrepancies with data obtained in other time periods.