AGENDA PACKET - Laserfiche WebLink

PAGE 53 Health Care Concerns related to health care including service availability and accessibility, the cost of services, perceptions of quality of services, and cultural responsiveness were raised frequently. Within health care, a number of barriers specific to specialty, mental health, reproductive health, dental, and youth mental health services arose. Accessibility was a frequent concern, with participants highlighting barriers including geographic distance to services and transportation and related to insurance status or type. The need to travel for services, particularly specialty, and referrals, which often took individuals outside the Tri-Valley (e.g., San Francisco or “over the hill” (i.e., Oakland)), was mentioned frequently and had transportation infrastructure implications. Traveling for medical care takes a significant amount of time and affects work. One participant said “I went through the same thing (navigating health care services) for so many services for so many years. We had to go up to Antioch so that my child could get her insulin pump and get taught on how to do it. It’s like well…okay…I gotta take like half-a- day off to go up there with her.” Kaiser was also frequently mentioned in regard to geographic distance, with participants saying that they had to travel to Walnut Creek or Oakland for hospital services. Many insurance concerns came from people who were un- or under-insured because they did not qualify for Medi-Cal, but participants also spoke of private insurance challenges, including that individuals with private insurance were unable to access substance use treatment or mental health services. One participant described a Kaiser-specific experience: “We kind of find this weird little gray area, where people, you know, if you have Kaiser and you have a child who needs mental health [services], you know, maybe acute mental health help, it can take two months to get that appointment. And so we’ve had to find various partners like Axis Community Health and the Bridge program.” The vast majority of the people who live in the Tri- Valley were insured (97%) (Table 20). Just over one in five (20%) had public health insurance (Table 20).x Livermore is home to the highest proportion and number of uninsured individuals in the region and the highest proportion and number of individuals in the region on public health insurance. A more granular geographic analysis at the census block group level shows that, in addition to Livermore, there are a few areas in Pleasanton with uninsured rates that exceed the county (4%) and state (7%) level (see Figure 43 and Table 20). At the census tract level (the most detailed geography for which such data are available), it becomes clear that many of the places where people are uninsured also report high rates of public insurance, reflecting the socioeconomic status of the people living in those places, particularly downtown Livermore and southeast Pleasanton (see Figure 44). PERCENT OF THE POPULATION THAT IS UNINSURED NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO ARE UNINSURED PERCENT OF THE POPULATION WITH PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WITH PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE Dublin 2.2 1,518 15.5 10,620 Livermore 3.1 2,720 23.3 20,576 Pleasanton 2.3 1,809 19.7 15,619 Tri-Valley 2.6 5,952 20.1 46,474 Alameda County 4.3 71,358 30.4 506,491 California 7.2 2,800,277 38 14,781,015 Table 20. Insurance Status by Location Source: US Census Bureau ACS 5-year 2017–2021 x The Census Bureau classification of public insurance includes Medicare, Medicaid, and VA Health Care (provided through the Department of Veterans Affairs); and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. EASTERN ALAMEDA COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES NEEDS ASSESSMENTSS Page 111 of 554