# Linking state policies to Latino and Asian American immigrant health care access

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2020 · $592,413

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
While many immigrants arrive in the US with good health status, there are persistent disparities
in access to health care for immigrant groups that may contribute to their more than expected
health declines over time, particularly among the nation's two largest immigrant populations,
Latinos and Asians. Since the late 1990s there has also been a proliferation of public policies at
the state level that have an impact on immigrant populations. There is growing evidence that
immigrant policies are a structural factor associated with disparities in Latino and Asian
immigrant health care access. Yet, there is limited understanding of the processes by which
policy, a contextual factor, has an impact on individual-level health care access outcomes. This
study aims to examine the pathways between state policy and access to care by (1) identifying
and assessing the variation among Latino and Asian immigrants' experiences of exclusion
related to immigrant policies, (2) understanding the extent to which experiences of policy-related
exclusion are associated with barriers to health care, and (3) assessing the extent to which
those associations are modified by citizenship status, race/ethnicity, and knowledge of policies.
We will conduct a mixed-methods study of the experiences of exclusion among Latino and
Asian immigrants in California, a demographically diverse state with a range of state-level
immigrant policies. We will assess the association between access to health care and
experiences of exclusion across five sectors: health care, social services, education,
employment, and law enforcement. We will analyze data from the California Health Interview
Survey (CHIS), a representative population survey of state residents, combined with a follow-up
survey of 2,000 CHIS immigrant respondents that collects additional information on experiences
related to immigrant policies. We will also conduct semi-structured interviews of immigrants in
two regions to identify the nuances of their experiences of and responses to those policies. The
findings from this research can both identify policies outside the health sector that have impacts
on immigrant access to health care, and suggest educational interventions which could improve
immigrant knowledge in ways that improves their access to needed health care.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9928744
- **Project number:** 5R01MD012292-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Steven Paul Wallace
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $592,413
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-20 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9928744

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9928744, Linking state policies to Latino and Asian American immigrant health care access (5R01MD012292-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9928744. Licensed CC0.

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