Here are five things to know about the law.
1. The law was signed last month following a decade-long effort by health advocates.
2. California has long analyzed health trends among Asian ethnic groups using a limited number of categories, according to the article. For instance, people of Taiwanese descent may have been included in the Chinese demographic group in identifying death, disease and pregnancy rates, the report states. Fijian people were included in the category of “other Asian.”
3. Under the new law, the California Department of Public Health will add categories allowing people of many more ancestries, such as Bangladeshi or Hmong, to better self-report their ethnic group, reports California Healthline, which also notes that categories take into account immigration status.
4. Data on Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Laotian, Cambodian, Hawaiian, Guamanian and Samoan people are already in the state public health system, according to the report. But officials will add 10 new categories, according to the measure’s proponents. New data, the report states, will specify whether someone is Bangladeshi, Hmong, Indonesian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese or Thai, or if they are from the Pacific Islands of Fiji or Tonga.
5. Proponents of the new law said in the report that continuing to place many Asian groups into one “other Asian” category limits the state’s ability to provide the best healthcare to Asian ethnic groups and could lead to greater healthcare costs. Opponents, however, have claimed the bill was unfair because it targeted Asians and not other demographic groups, according to the report. The report states supporters of the new law say they advocated to ensure no identifiable data is released that could lead to discrimination.
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