BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 176
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Date of Hearing: April 21, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Rob Bonta, Chair
AB 176
(Bonta) - As Amended April 14, 2015
SUBJECT: Data collection.
SUMMARY: Requires specified state agencies to report and
publish data using collection and tabulation categories, for
Native Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Islander groups (API),
whenever they collect demographic data, as specified.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the Board of Governors (BOG) of the California
Community Colleges (CCC), the Trustees of the California State
University (CSU), and the Regents of the University of
California (UC), whenever said entities collect demographic
data as to the ancestry or ethnic origin of students for a
report that includes student admission, enrollment,
completion, or graduation rates, to use specified collection
and tabulation categories for Native Hawaiian, and other API
groups.
2)Requires the Department of Public Health (DPH), Department of
Health Care Services (DHCS), and Department Managed Health
Care (DMHC) to use additional collection and tabulation
categories for Native Hawaiian (NH), Asian, and Pacific
Islander (API) groups whenever said entities collect
demographic data.
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3)Requires the BOG, CCC, CSU, and UC to collect and publish
specified data, in compliance with the Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act, and requires these entities to observe
criteria for ensuring statistical significance of data
collected and published.
4)Requires DPH, DHCS, and DMHC whenever they collect patient
demographic data on level of health care coverage, amount of
health care coverage, rates for major diseases, leading causes
of death per demographic, subcategories for leading causes of
death in California overall, pregnancy rates, and housing
numbers, each must use the following separate collection
categories and tabulations, in addition to the categories
required by existing law:
a) Major Asian groups, including, but not limited to,
Bangladeshi, Hmong, Indonesian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Sri
Lankan, Taiwanese, and Thai; and,
b) Major Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander groups,
including, but not limited to, Fijian and Tongan.
5)Requires DPH, DHCS, and DMHC to make any data collected
publicly available, except for personal identifying
information by posting the data on the Internet Website of the
agency on or before July 1, 2012, and annually thereafter.
Requires DPH, DHCS, and DMHC to update their data collection
to reflect the additional Asian groups and additional Native
Hawaiian and API groups as they are reported by the U.S.
Census Bureau within 18 months after a decennial U.S. Census
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is released to the public.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires state agencies, boards, and commissions that directly
or by contract collect demographic data as to the ancestry or
ethnic origin of Californians to use separate collection
categories and tabulations for each major API group,
including, but not limited to, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino,
Korean, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Laotian, Cambodian,
Hawaiian, Guamanian, and Samoan.
2)Requires the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and the
Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) to collect
and tabulate data for additional major Asian groups.
FISCAL EFFECT: This bill has not yet been analyzed by a fiscal
committee.
COMMENTS:
1)PURPOSE OF THIS BILL. The author states many of the
communities within the API population face similar challenges
in California, such as language barriers and immigration;
however, they differ on many issues. The author asserts this
is most evident with respect to education and public health,
where the outcomes of some of the largest NH and API groups
within the aggregate population raise the average outcome of
the greater NH and API population as a whole. The author
points to data from a 2013 report done by the Asian American
Center for Advancing Justice, which demonstrates that 14% of
Asian Americans are uninsured; disaggregated data shows that
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Korean, Tongan, and Thai have uninsured rates higher than 22%
whereas only 8% to 10% of Japanese and Asian Indian
populations are uninsured. The author contends that the lack
of disaggregated data for the NH and API community within the
public health sector is limiting the state's ability to
provide the best health care to this population. The author
concludes that this bill will enable the state and public to
identify trends that are typically unseen through aggregate
data, and ensure that the state is adequately meeting the
health needs of its residents.
2)BACKGROUND.
a) Aggregate vs. disaggregated data. Data aggregation is
any process in which information is gathered and expressed
in a collective or summary form, for purposes such as
statistical analysis. A common aggregation purpose is to
get more information about particular groups based on
specific variables such as age, profession, or income where
the data are aggregated to preserve the confidentiality of
individuals. Disaggregated data are data that have been
extrapolated from aggregated data and divided and broken
down into smaller information units. Disaggregating data
is another critical step to gaining increased knowledge
from collective or aggregated information. Fully
disaggregating data helps to expose hidden trends, and can
enable the identification of vulnerable populations.
b) Need for disaggregated data. According to the 2010 U.S.
Census, there are currently over 4.8 million Californians
of Asian descent. NH and API subgroups represent over 50
ethnic backgrounds and speak over 100 different languages,
thus language and cultural barriers pose health care
problems for many individuals within these subgroups. A
2010 study by the Asian and Pacific Islander American
Health Forum demonstrated that different NH and API
subgroups have varying health care problems. Data from the
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report revealed NH and Filipino adults have some of the
highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the state, whereas
Korean adults suffer from the highest rates of serious
psychological stress in the state. The report also showed
Tongans and Koreans have some of the highest uninsured
rates in the state
3)SUPPORT. Supporters of this bill state the lack of
disaggregated data collection by public health state agencies
undermines efforts to increase awareness of public health
intiatives and increase preventive care. Supporters contend
this bill is necessary to ensure that limited public health
resources are effectively utilized on the populations that
need them most. Supporters conclude that disaggregated data
will also be useful to organizations within the public which
examine the optimal public health support services are
necessary to best assist the community.
4)CONCERNS. DPH has expressed concern that the additional
collection and tabulation categories may lead to a small
enough sample size that information may be personally
identifiable. DPH is seeking clarification that data
reporting would be statewide rather than on a countywide
basis. DPH also raises concerns about whether third party
data - data used by DPH, but not collected by it - would be
covered in the bill provisions.
DMHC states they deal primarily with insurance and medical
complaints, and infrequently collect demographic data. DMHC
contends that any data gathered is on a scale small enough to
be statistically insignificant and possibly personally
identifiable. DMHC is concerned that the provisions of this
bill would apply in the case that DMHC expands collection of
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demographic data.
5)POLICY CONSIDERATIONS. Some supporters of the bill have
advocated for inclusion of the Iu Mien ethnic group as one of
the additional major Asian groups specified for collection and
tabulation by the departments. According to Lao Family
Community Development, there are approximately 50 thousand Iu
Mien in the entire U.S. This bill mandates that DPH, DHCS,
and DMHC update their collection and tabulation categories
with any new categories provided with the release of a
decennial census. Iu Mien have yet to be included as a
distinct category in the U.S. Census, but would be covered by
the bill provisions in the case that the group is in the
future.
This bill currently requires the higher education authorities
to collect data in a manner that complies with federal privacy
law and is statistically significant. The current language
does not contain such requirements for the public health
authorities within this bill. The Committee may suggest to
the author amendments later in the legislative process to
safeguard the privacy of individuals and ensure statistical
significance of the data collected.
6)PRIOR LEGISLATION:
a) AB 1088 (Eng), Chapter 689, Statutes of 2011, requires
DIR and DFEH to collect and tabulate data for additional
major Asian groups.
b) AB 1737 (Eng) of 2010, would have required certain state
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agencies to use additional separate collection categories
and tabulations for major Native Hawaiian and API groups.
AB 1737 was held on the suspense file of the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
c) AB 295 (Lieu) of 2007 would have required various state
entities to report collected demographic data according to
each major API group and make that data available to the
public to the extent that disclosure did not violate
confidentiality. AB 295 was vetoed by the Governor.
d) AB 2420 (Lieu) of 2006 would have expanded from 11 to 23
the ancestry or ethnic origin collection categories
required to be collected by any state agency, board,
commission, California Community Colleges, or the
California State University. Also, would have required the
above entities to collect, tabulate, report, and make
available to the public any data collected on the groups.
AB 2420 was held on the Senate Appropriations Committee
Suspense File.
7)DOUBLE REFERRAL. This bill is double referred, it was heard
in the Assembly Higher Education Committee on April 7, 2015
and passed out on a vote of 12-1.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Alliance for Boys and Men of Color
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance - Alameda Chapter
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
California Black Health Network
California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American
Affairs
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California Immigrant Policy Center
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
California State University
Cambodian Association of America
Families in Good Health
Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries
Healthy House Within a MATCH Coalition
Hmong National Development, Inc.
Iu Mien Community Services
Khmer Girls in Action
Khmer Parent Association
Lao Family Community Empowerment, Inc.
Los Angeles Community College District
National Commission on AAPI Research in Education
National Council of Asian Pacific Islanders
OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates
OCA - Greater Los Angeles
Pasadena Community College District
Project Prevention Coalition
Service Employees International Union California
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
Stone Soup Fresno
United Cambodian Community
University of Southern California Student Coalition for Asian
Pacific Empowerment
West Coast Asian Pacific Islander Student Union
Young Invincibles
54 Individuals
Opposition
None on file.
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Analysis Prepared by:Rylan Gervase / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097