January 26, 2021

PCDC’s Newly Released Report Identifies Disparities in Primary Care Access in Los Angeles County

PCDC has released a new report: Primary Care Access in Los Angeles County Supervisorial Districts. This report provides new information on primary care access and health status for residents of Los Angeles County’s (LAC)s five Supervisorial Districts. The five Districts contain 88 cities and communities, and are home to a population of over 10 million residents. Access to and need for health care are often aligned, as shown in a previous report published by PCDC that looked at these measures across the state of California.

The LAC report examines primary care access for each Supervisorial District as well as measures that impact need for health care: health status and social determinants. On the whole, Districts with higher measures of primary care access also had better measures of health. Conversely, the same was true; for example, Supervisorial District 2 had the highest rate of residents living below the federal poverty level – with the highest rates of asthma emergency department visits and highest cardiovascular disease mortality rate.

A closer look at uninsured rates within Districts also included in the report, demonstrating how access varies within a single District. Given the large size of the Supervisorial Districts, each having over two million residents, community-level analyses of access may provide additional insight into resource allocation and future planning of health services.

By presenting these data and population Supervisorial District level, we hope to empower policymakers and primary care advocates to address existing inequities in access to quality primary care across Los Angeles.