Health Professionals and Patients in California: Speaking the Same Language

California is facing a shortage of health professionals to meet the needs of its large, diverse, and aging population, and the situation is worsening. Shortages exist across professions and geographies, with sizeable urban and rural underserved populations. Despite increasing population diversity, California’s health professionals don’t reflect the increasing diversity of the state’s population. For example, in 2019, 39% of Californians identified as Latinx, but only 14% of medical school matriculants and 6% of active patient care physicians in California were Latinx.