Arturo Vargas Bustamante, Ph.D., M.A., MPP

Assistant Professor, Health Services UCLA School of Public Health 31-299 CHS 650 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772 (310) 206-4744 Fax: (310) 825-3317 E-mail:avb@ucla.edu Office Hours: Mondays 11:30-1:30 or by appointment

Biographical Information

Biographical Information
Professor Vargas Bustamante is an Assistant Professor and Assistant Director for the Policy Track of the MPH Program and the joint degree program in public policy and public health in the Department of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health. He conducts research in two fields: i) health care disparities and ii) health services in developing countries. His health care disparities research focuses on population groups that are overwhelmingly uninsured or that have poor access to health care, predominantly among Hispanics/Latinos.  He also specializes in the statistical analyses of disparities in health care access, utilization, quality and insurance coverage. The outcomes of his research have had direct policy applications, particularly since they estimate the share of disparities that can be attributed to socioeconomic and demographic factors and the corresponding part associated to health system variables, such as usual source of care and insurance status.
His research on health services in developing countries focuses in two areas: cross-border health care utilization and in the effect of health services privatization and decentralization in middle-income countries, predominantly in Latin America. He has used a contingent valuation approach to estimate the willingness to pay for health insurance coverage between Mexico and the United States. His research in health services in middle-income countries has compared privatization programs in Mexico, Colombia and Chile and the effect of decentralization among health care providers that cater to recipients of conditional cash grants in rural areas.

Professor Vargas Bustamante holds a PhD (2008) in Public Policy, an M.A. (2006) in economics and an M.P.P. (2004) all from UC-Berkeley. Program evaluation and contingent valuation were the fields of his graduate study specialization. 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, where he was responsible for the cross-border health insurance project. His professional career began in the Health Financing Administration of the Mexican Ministry of Health.

Selected Publications

Vargas Bustamante A, Fang H, Rizzo JA, Ortega AN. Understanding observed and unobserved health care access and utilization disparities among US Latino adults. Medical Care Research and Review 2009;66(5):561-577.

Vargas Bustamante A, Fang H, Rizzo JA, Ortega AN. Heterogeneity in health insurance coverage among US Latino adults. Journal of General Internal Medicine 2009;24(Suppl 3):561-567.

Rodríguez, MA, Vargas Bustamante A, Ang A. Perceived quality of care, receipt of preventive care, and usual source of health care among undocumented and other Latinos.  Journal of General Internal Medicine  2009;24(Suppl 3):508-513.

Vargas Bustamante A, Ojeda G, Castañeda X. Willingness to pay for cross-border health insurance between the U.S. and Mexico. Health Affairs 2008; 27(1):169-178.