October 2009

In this Issue:

• New Resources 
  • NEW MEDIA
  • PUBLICATIONS
    
    
• Activities in the Field
  
  
• Policy Updates
  
  
• Upcoming Events

New Resources

NEW MEDIA:

• BET hosted a news special, Critical Condition: What’s at Stake in Health Care Reform, which discussed how current health reform proposals will specifically affect the African American community. The panelists on the show included White House Director of Domestic Policy Melody Barnes; U.S. Congress members James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Maxine Waters (D-CA); BET News’ Pamela Gentry; Conservative Policy Expert Bob Parks; Dr. Brian Smedley; Dr. Majorie Innocent; and Dr. Sampson Davis.

PUBLICATIONS:

• Families USA released Health Coverage in Communities of Color: Talking about the New Census Numbers, which takes a closer look at the latest data and finds that communities of color continue to bear the brunt of the uninsured crisis. This fact sheet looks at who is uninsured, poverty levels of different racial and ethnic groups, and why public programs are vital to communities of color.
  
• The Health Policy Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released a new report, The Economic Burden of Health Inequalities in the United States. It found that between 2003 and 2006, more than 30 percent of medical care expenditures for African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics were excess costs that were the result of inequities in the health of these groups. The Health Policy Institute also held a health briefing to discuss the analysis and preliminary results of this study, which is available as a webcast.
  
• Urban Institute published Estimating the Cost of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, which examines the cost burdens of racial and ethnic disparities for a select set of preventable diseases and the excess rates of these diseases among African Americans and Latinos relative to whites. This new report estimates that, over the next decade, health disparities will cost the health care system approximately $337 billion.
  
• Kaiser Family Foundation recently released two issue briefs. A Profile of American Indians and Alaska Natives and Their Health Coverage provides an overview of the some of the demographic factors that influence the health and insurance coverage of American Indians and Alaska Natives and examines their relatively high rates of chronic conditions compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Immigrants’ Health Coverage and Health Reform: Key Questions and Answers looks at key questions related to immigrant health care and health reform. The brief addresses topics such as how immigrants receive health coverage, how many of the uninsured are non-citizen immigrants, and what would happen to coverage for non-citizen immigrants under current health reform proposals.
  
• The Kaiser Family Foundation’s fact sheets, Black Americans and HIV/AIDS and Latino Americans and HIV/AIDS, provide statistical evidence on the affect of HIV and AIDS on Black and Latino Americans. Both Black Americans and Latino Americans continue to be heavily affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
  
• The National Medical Association (NMA) has released Cultural Competency in Health Care: Evaluating the Outcomes of a Cultural Competency Training among Health Care Professionals, which analyzes whether cultural competency training produces a change in the knowledge and skills of providers and administrators. The study finds that as a result of cultural competency training, participants self-reported not only an enhanced understanding of the health care experiences of patients from diverse backgrounds but also an improvement in the skills necessary to effectively work in cross-cultural situations.
  
• The Prevention Institute, Policy Link, and Convergence Partnership published Healthy, Equitable Transportation Policy: Recommendations and Research, which examines how transportation directly affects health. The report shows that low-income communities and communities of color often do not have access to the benefits of transportation systems, but rather bear the burdens of that system. For example, these communities are often situated near bus depots, highways, and truck routes, where pollution levels and asthma rates are high.
  
• The Pew Hispanic Center released a report called Hispanics, Health Insurance, and Health Care Access that looks at health insurance coverage and access to health care among Hispanics by immigration status. The study finds that about 60 percent of Hispanic adults in the United States who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents lack health insurance. In contrast, 28 percent of Hispanic adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 17percent of the overall U.S. adult population lack health insurance.

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Activities in the Field

The Cross Cultural Health Care Program, Washington

The Cross Cultural Health Care Program (CCHCP), established in 1992, was a response to an increasingly urgent need to decipher and to negotiate the diverse health care needs of the growing non-mainstream, limited English speaking populations in the Seattle area. Primarily a training and consulting organization, CCHCP endeavors to enhance the abilities of health professionals to provide culturally competent and linguistically appropriate care.

From its inception, the CCHCP has approached the issue of cultural competency from a unique perspective that acknowledges its complex, systemic nature. Consequently, the work of the CCHCP has substantively differed from that of most organizations in the field that focus only on specific pieces of the complicated cultural competency puzzle. The recognition that health care systems and institutions also operate as complex cultures, with specialized languages, traditions, and codes of conduct, has allowed CCHCP to develop similarly focused programs for organizational systems.

In 1996, CCHCP began a campaign to disseminate their programs and products at the national level and have been providing trainings at public and private settings across the country. The scope and reach of their programs continue to shift and grow.

Today, the Cross Cultural Health Care Program empowers underserved communities through support and advocacy, education, and community development to achieve self-directed access and use of health care resources. The CCHCP also collaborates with ethnic communities to gain full participation in the health care system, and maintains a center for cultural competence to make educational materials available. CCHCP also improves and provides training opportunities for interpreters and providers and collaborates with institutions in outreach efforts targeting ethnic community members to encourage their participation in health careers.

For more information about the Cross Cultural Health Care Program, please contact Ira Sengupta at iras@xculture.org.

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Policy Updates

Health Care Reform Update

Early this month the Senate Finance Committee, the last congressional committee to consider a health reform bill, finished its markup of the proposed health care legislation. The Finance Committee’s version of the health reform bill does not include a public option, a provision that is included in both the House Tri-Committee bill and the Senate HELP bill. The public option is an insurance plan administered and funded by the federal government or state governments offered within a health insurance “exchange,” or marketplace, as an alternative to private plans.

The Finance Committee plans to vote on the proposal after the bill’s final language has been made public and the Congressional Budget Office has provided a final estimate of costs. After the Finance Committee votes, the Senate HELP Committee and Senate Finance Committee will merge their bills. The merged Senate bill will then go to the Senate floor for votes. Once the bill goes to the floor, the Senate is expected to debate the bill for a number of weeks.
 
In the House, Speaker Pelosi is working with the Democratic caucus to release a combined bill within the next couple weeks. This bill will is intended to clear up any discrepancies and make minor adjustments to the language of the bills proposed by the House Committee of Education and Labor, the Committee on Ways and Means, and the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Once she releases her bill, it will go to the floor for a vote.

Upcoming Events

• Faces of a Healthy Future: National Conference to End Health Disparities II
  November 3 – 6, 2009
  Twin City Quarter, 460 N Cherry St., Winston-Salem, NC, 27101
  Sponsor: Center for Excellence in the Elimination of Disparities
  For more information and to register, click here.
  
• American Public Health Association: 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition
  November 7 – 11, 2009
  Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
  Sponsor: American Public Health Association
  For more information and to register, click here.
  
• 3rd Annual Disparities Partnership Forum: Overcoming Disparities, Building Successful Diabetes and Obesity Programs
  November 18 – 19, 2009
  Hyatt Regency- Crystal City, 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202
  Sponsor: American Diabetes Association
  For more information and to register, click here.

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