Dr. Arturo Vargas Bustamante is a Professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy & Management and serves as Faculty Research Director at the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. The primary focus of his research has been on health care access and utilization, particularly among Latinos/Hispanics and immigrants in the United States. He has also contributed to border and international health care research, as well as chronic care management research in primary care settings. Professor Bustamante’s expertise lies in health care disparities, health policy, health services research, and program and policy evaluation. His research has been published in reputable health policy journals such as Health Affairs, Health Services Research, Social Science and Medicine, Medical Care, among others. His work has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, and various government funders and foundations.
Professor Bustamante holds a PhD (2008) in Public Policy, an M.A. (2006) in Economics and an M.P.P. (2004) all from UC-Berkeley. As part of his professional experience, he worked as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and for the California Program on Access to Care. Prior to that, he worked for the Health Care Financing Administration of the Mexican Ministry of Health.
Affiliations
Education
- PhD, Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 2008
- MA, Economics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 2006
- MPP, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 2004
- Lic, El Colegio de México, 2000
Selected Courses
- Health Policy and Management 200A: Health Care Organization and Financing
Selected Publications
Contributions to Latino/Hispanic Health Care Research
- Bustamante AV, Fang H, Rizzo JA, Ortega AN. Understanding observed and unobserved health care access and utilization disparities among US Latino adults. Medical Care Research & Review, 2009, 66(5):561-77.
- Bustamante AV, Fang H, Rizzo JA, Ortega AN. Heterogeneity in health insurance coverage among US Latino adults. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2009, 24 (3):561-6.
- Bustamante AV, Chen J, Rodriguez HP, Rizzo JA, Ortega AN. Use of preventive care services among Latino subgroups. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2010, 38(6):610-9.
- Bustamante AV, Chen J. Physicians cite hurdles ranging from lack of coverage to poor communication in providing high-quality care to latinos. Health Affairs, 2011, 30(10): 1921-9.
- Bustamante, AV, R McKenna, J Viana, AN Ortega, Chen J. Access to care differences between Mexican-heritage and other Latinos in California after the Affordable Care Act, Health Affairs, 2018,37(9):1400-8.
Contributions to Immigrant Health Care Research
- Bustamante AV, Fang H, Garza J, Carter-Pokras O, Wallace SP, Rizzo JA, Ortega AN. Variations in healthcare access and utilization among Mexican immigrants: the role of documentation status. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health / Center for Minority Public Health, 2012, 14(1):146-55.
- Bustamante AV, Chen J. Health expenditure dynamics and years of U.S. residence: analyzing spending disparities among Latinos by citizenship/nativity status. Health Services Research, 2013, 47(2):794-818.
- Bustamante, AV, Chen J, R McKenna, Ortega AN. Health Care Access and Utilization Among US Immigrants Before and After the Affordable Care Act. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health / Center for Minority Public Health, 2019, 21(2): 211-18.
- Bustamante, AV, Chen J, L Félix Beltrán, Ortega AN. Health Policy Challenges Posed By Shifting Demographics And Health Trends Among US Immigrants. Health Affairs, 2021, 40(7): 1028-37.
- Bustamante AV, L Félix Beltrán, J Nwadiuko, AN Ortega. Avoiding Medicaid Enrollment After the Reversal of the Changes in the Public Charge Rule Among Latino and Asian Immigrants. Health Services Research, 2022, 57(2):195-203.
Contributions to Border and International Health Care Research
- Bustamante, AV, Ojeda G, Castaneda X. Willingness to pay for cross-border health insurance between the United States and Mexico. Health Affairs, 2008, 27(1):169-78.
- Bustamante, AV. The tradeoff between centralized and decentralized health services: evidence from rural areas in Mexico. Social Science & Medicine, 2010, 71(5):925-34.
- Bustamante AV, Mendez CA. Healthcare privatization in Latin America: what explains diverging healthcare privatization policies in Chile, Colombia and Mexico, Journal of Health Care Politics, Policy and the Law, 2014, 39(4):841-86.
- Bustamante, AV, Shimoga S. Comparing the income elasticity of health spending in middle-income and high-income countries: the role of financial protection, International Journal of Health Policy & Management, 2018,7(3): 255-263.
- Bustamante, AV, M Vilar-Compte, Ochoa Lagunas A. Social Support and Chronic Disease Management Among Older Adults of Mexican Descent: A U.S.-Mexico Perspective. Social Science and Medicine, 2019,216(1):107-113.