The Health Equity and Advocacy program seeks to address the longstanding health disparities faced by AANHPI and other marginalized communities by coordinating direct services, building strategic community partnerships through coordinated local and statewide collaborations, and targeted advocacy for health care reforms. Ultimately, we aim to promote health equity and increase access to high-quality, affordable, culturally and linguistically accessible health care for AANHPI and other vulnerable communities.

Because of the diversity of the AANHPI communities that we work with are so diverse, with dozens of different cultures, languages, and historical backgrounds, our collaborative model of using grassroots partners to reach each of our diverse AANHPI communities across the state has proven to be effective in eliminating barriers to health care and other social services. Since ARI and its partners are the trusted messengers within their communities, our efforts to provide health access and other health initiatives enable us to understand community needs firsthand and inform and guide our local, state, and federal advocacy work. ARI’s regional and statewide health equity collaboratives have ranged from providing outreach, education, enrollment, and navigation services for health coverage programs and other public benefit programs to advancing access to oral health, mental/behavioral health, and language assistance services, such as interpretation and translation services.

The Health Equity Project has identified several core policy areas to focus its advocacy efforts:

1. Supporting increased culturally and linguistically appropriate access to health care programs, including Medi-Cal and Covered California, particularly for immigrants regardless of immigration status
2. Promoting improved demographic data collection and reporting policies, protocols, and practices, especially advocating for disaggregated race and ethnicity data for health, oral health, and public health programs; and
3. Advancing cultural and linguistic access to oral health through increasing dental coverage in Medi-Cal and managed care plans and diversifying the oral health care workforce, including Community Health Workers (CHWs) and Dental Therapists.

Because of our strong ties to the local community, ARI has always been able to swiftly and nimbly respond to the evolving needs of our communities throughout the years. For example, some of our policy advocacy efforts have included the immediate public health response to COVID-19, access to affordable health coverage and public benefits, addressing immigration policies, such as the public charge rule, and tackling the rise in anti-Asian hate incidents and other issues that AANHPI communities are experiencing. Our Project continues its effective health advocacy work, which has been built through years of building strong relationships with community-based organizations and community clinics through steady networking, using our proven collaborative model that leverages grassroots partners’ direct services and trusted community messengers to reach and support AANHPIs, and developing and sharing substantive knowledge on key issues and conducting expert advocacy with other coalition partners to policymakers, administrators and public officials.

Highlights of the Health Equity and Advocacy Program’s achievements and efforts:

Legislature, Administrative, & Budget Advocacy

• In 2022, ARI worked with AHS, CPEHN along with a few advocacy & social service provider groups, advocated for the reimbursement for Community Health Navigators (including Community Health workers), efforts to expand data collections for AANHPI subgroups in the Department of Public Health;
• ARI also supported expanding Mental Health Access, addressing racial equity by creating an Office of Racial Equity, and the continuation of funding for COVID-19 funding to address COVID-19-related issues.
• ARI advocated with different advocacy groups on the Community Health Navigator budget to allocate reimbursement for Community Health Navigators working providing services under Medi-Cal.
• ARI is part of the Health4All coalition to advocate for the Medi-Cal Expansion for all children and adults regardless of immigration status.
• ARI continues to advocate for disaggregated for the AANHPI communities in California. We are auditing the data collection and reporting process/guidelines of the local Department of Public Health in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Sacramento, Merced, Fresno, and Orange County. The audit results will be used to draft policy recommendations and share them with those counties and CDPH to advocate for the best data collection, reporting, and disaggregation practices.
• ARI is engaged with DHCS to monitor the COFA Medi-Cal expansion to ensure a smooth transition for COFA citizens in California. ARI also actively participates with other advocacy groups on the older adult expansion to monitor its implementation.
• ARI is a member of DMHC’s Health Equity and Quality Committee. The Committee will recommend standard health equity and quality measures, including annual benchmark standards for health plans to assess equity and quality in health care delivery.
• ARI Health Equity and Advocacy Program also leads local and statewide collaboratives to address the mentioned policy areas.

Current and Past Initiatives

• Community Health Workers Outreach Initiative for Los Angeles County
• Los Angeles Community Equity fund
• AANIPI Statewide Oral Health Alliance
• California Department of Public Health, Health Equity Pilot Project
• AANHPI Data Equity Project
• Office of Minority Health for the Promoting Equitable Access to Language Services in Health and Human Services initiative
• Benefit Access for Immigrants in Los Angeles (BAILA) project
• Transformative Grant by CDSS