Using the 2001 California Health Interview Survey, this study compared health status, medical insurance, and having a usual source of care for 2,230 ethnic minority adolescents based on language use at home: Group 1, English only; Group 2, both English and another language; and Group 3, exclusively another language. Adjusting for demographic variables, adolescents in Group 3 were more likely to report fair or poor health (OR=2.37, p=0.012) and to not have medical insurance (OR=4.61, p less than 0.001) compared to adolescents in Group 1. Young adolescents in Group 3 were more likely to have no usual source of care (OR=4.07, p=0.029). Interventions need to consider language barriers in the context of an adolescent's age. (Contains 3 tables.)