AmeriSpeak Panel Powers Policy Research Across California
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December 2025
NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel has enabled rigorous research on health care, legal access, and issues affecting millions of Californians.
Over the past five years, AmeriSpeak®, NORC’s probability-based survey panel, has powered landmark research on health care access, legal services, mental health, and aging—providing California policymakers with the rigorous data they need to make informed decisions.
Among other issues, the AmeriSpeak panel enables research that directly shapes California health policy. For example, NORC has conducted annual surveys of Covered California members since 2018, tracking more than 2,000 enrollees each year. These studies have revealed that monthly premium costs drive enrollment decisions and that nearly half of members delay medical care due to cost concerns—insights that inform affordability initiatives and plan design.
The California Health Policy Survey, fielded annually since 2020, has consistently highlighted gaps in mental health access. The 2024 survey found that more than half of Californians who tried to make appointments reported trouble finding mental health providers accepting their insurance, compared to just 14 percent for physical health care. These findings contributed to California’s ongoing efforts to expand mental health provider networks.
“When you’re trying to understand issues like health care access or legal services gaps in a state as diverse as California, you need data that truly represents all communities,” said Rebecca Catterson, a principal research director in Health Care Programs. “AmeriSpeak’s probability-based sampling ensures our findings can be generalized to the entire state population.”
“When you’re trying to understand issues like health care access or legal services gaps in a state as diverse as California, you need data that truly represents all communities. AmeriSpeak’s probability-based sampling ensures our findings can be generalized to the entire state population.”
AmeriSpeak has proven essential for reaching California’s hard-to-reach populations. NORC has expanded panel representation to include more Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander respondents through the Amplify AAPI initiative.
“Probability-based panels like AmeriSpeak provide the scientific rigor California needs to understand complex policy challenges and ensure every community’s voice is represented,” Catterson said.
NORC has also partnered with RAND to create the Veterans Insight Panel, a national data resource to capture high-quality data on the experiences, opinions, and well-being of Veterans across every branch and era of service.
This investment in inclusive sampling ensures that policy research reflects California’s full demographic diversity—from the state’s aging population to its multilingual immigrant communities—providing the foundation for policy decisions that benefit all across the nation’s most populous state.
This article is from our flagship newsletter, NORC Now. NORC Now keeps you informed of the full breadth of NORC’s work, the questions we help our clients answer, and the issues we help them address.
