Assistant professor at Cal State Fullerton.
Shana Alex Charles is a research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. As the Center's director of health insurance studies, she works with numerous projects, including the State of Health Insurance in California (SHIC) project and the California Health Benefits Review Program (CHBRP). The SHIC project acts as a statewide and national resource for health insurance information, creating and disseminating reports, fact sheets, policy briefs and on-demand data estimates. As a member of the cost analysis team with CHBRP, Charles estimates the impact of health insurance benefit mandates pending in the state's legislature. Charles is also an expert on health insurance data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).
Charles's research focuses on discontinuous health insurance, particularly among low-income children, and its impact on access to care, and underinsurance among those with coverage. She also specializes in political issues surrounding health care reform at both the state and the national levels. Her most recent work includes an examination of immigrant children excluded from the health insurance expansions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010; an evaluation of the availability of job-based coverage following the first wave of the Great Recession; and a new conceptual framework of underinsurance that includes access to care as part of the definition.
Charles received her master's degree in public policy from the UCLA School of Public Affairs and her PhD in health services from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Shana Alex Charles on KCRW
More from KCRW
LAUSD parents fear their kids will get COVID when returning to school this week
Los AngelesLAUSD requires students and staff to submit a COVID test before returning to school on Tuesday. More than 60,000 have tested positive, and that has parents worried.
COVID misinfo: How cannabis became the left's version of Ivermectin
CannabisSmoking a joint or taking CBD won’t stop the pandemic, but that viral rumor is the latest piece of medical misinformation around cannabis to take off.
Omicron has businesses rethinking in-person work
Los AngelesWith Omicron, many offices resemble ghost towns again, and questions emerge about the future of in-person work. It’s especially true in Culver City.
Netflix hikes prices, how will subscribers react?
EntertainmentThe standard Netflix plan now costs $15.49 a month — 50 cents more than HBO Max. Some subscribers may cancel, but the price will likely continue to rise as Netflix grows.
Cost/savings debate over California universal health care
CaliforniaAssembly member Ash Kalra defends AB 1400, his bill that would establish California universal health care by taxing businesses and citizens.
To visit a nursing home, you must be COVID-negative. But where to find a test?
CoronavirusLong-term care facilities have made COVID testing requirements stricter just as tests have become harder to find. Now visitors can’t get inside.
Why LA’s ‘Vision Zero’ still hasn’t ended traffic deaths
TransportationThe City of Los Angeles is seven years into an ambitious plan to end traffic-related deaths by 2025. So why are fatalities going up?
President Biden gets report card as he faces challenges on voting rights, Ukraine
NationalPanelists discuss how President Biden is doing one year into his tenure, what the U.S. can — and should — do about Russia, and what Republicans stand for in 2022.
China to host Winter Olympics, a major test of its strict COVID rules
OlympicsThe 2022 Winter Olympics start next week in Beijing. With thousands of worldwide athletes, coaches, and support staff arriving, can China avoid another coronavirus outbreak?