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December 2006
In this Issue:
New Resources
Activities in the Field
Policy Updates
Children's Health Coverage
Health Savings Accounts
Upcoming Events
Families USA has recently launched a new project called the Global Health Initiative. This goal of this initiative, funded by the Gates Foundation, is to make research on global health issues a higher national priority. Be on the lookout for exciting new publications and resources from the Global Health Initiative as they expand Families USA's policy agenda in an exciting new direction.
Families USA also recently published a new fact sheet on Health Saving Accounts entitled How HSAs Can Drain Your Wallet and Harm Your Health. The fact sheet provides scenarios that show how HSAs can adversely affect health care consumers, including information on how these plans can be particularly harmful for racial and ethnic minorities.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has begun publishing a new weekly online news summary report entitled "Kaiser Health Disparities Report: A Weekly Look at Race, Ethnicity, and Health." You can sign up to receive this report at http://profile.kff.org/profile/subscriptions.cfm. KFF also just launched a new feature on its Web site called the Health Policy Video Library. The library has links to documentaries, news segments, and other videos on various health issues. Search options allow you to find videos on racial and ethnic disparities.
America's Health Insurance Plans and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a joint report entitled Collection and Use of Race and Ethnicity Data for Quality Improvement: 2006 AHIP-RWJF Survey of Health Insurance Plans. The report discusses the results of a survey of AHIP member companies regarding collection of racial and ethnic data on their enrollees. The results were encouraging when compared with past survey results because there has been a significant increase in data collection. Also encouraging was the fact that many of these health insurance plans were creating appropriate language services for enrollees using the collected data.
Health Affairs published two articles in the November/ December 2006 issue that particularly relate to minority health. The first, Would Safety-Net Expansions Offset Reduced Access Resulting from Lost Insurance Coverage? Race/Ethnicity Differences, analyzed whether increased community health center funding under the Bush Administration has narrowed racial/ethnic gaps in access to care among low-income individuals. The authors conclude that although minorities did benefit from the expansion of safety net services, they also experienced big drops in insurance coverage rates over the period studied, resulting in a net loss of access to health care for Hispanics and African Americans. The second article, Twelve-Year Trends in Health Insurance Coverage among Latinos, by Subgroup and Immigration Status, looks at insurance trends for Latinos over a 12-year period, examining their enrollment in public programs versus employer coverage, as well as immigration status.
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El Pueblo Inc.
El Pueblo, Inc. is a North Carolina nonprofit, statewide advocacy and public policy organization dedicated to strengthening the Latino community. Much like North Carolina's Latino community, El Pueblo has grown exponentially since its incorporation in 1995, and it has continued to expand its programs and initiatives. El Pueblo currently has two main health programs: Comunidad Sana and Líderes de Salud, both of which address health disparities that disproportionately affect Latinos in North Carolina.
Comunidad Sana, funded by the Susan G. Komen Foundation, is a breast cancer early detection and education program targeting Latinas living in 10 North Carolina counties. This program focuses on providing early detection information to Latinas through church groups, health fairs, and Latino community events. Studies have shown that even though Hispanic/Latinas have lower breast cancer rates, they are 20 percent more likely to die from the disease because of low mammography screening rates and diagnosis at later stages. These circumstances are, in turn, usually the result of such factors as low income, low educational attainment, lack of health insurance, and limited English proficiency.
Líderes de Salud is an innovative lay health advisor (promotoras de salud) program funded by the John Rex Endowment. Its overall goal is to improve the health and well-being of Latino children and families in Wake County. This program trains promotoras in an eight-week program in which they learn about immunizations, dental care, asthma, obesity, and diabetes, as well as an overview of the U.S. health care system. After this training, the promotoras become involved in the community through three community-based partner organizations where promotoras can reach out to the community through health fairs, community education efforts, and technical assistance to health agencies working with Latino families in the community.
In 2004, the first year of the program, 31 promotoras participated in the Líderes de Salud training, and the numbers held steady through the following year, with many promotoras choosing to continue their participation in the program. El Pueblo Inc. is currently recruiting a new group of promotoras to help continue improving the health of the Latino community.
To learn more about either of these programs, please contact Florence Simán, MPH, at El Pueblo, Inc. at 919 835-1525, ext. 229 or by e-mail at Florence@elpueblo.org.
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Children's Health Coverage
In our October newsletter, we reported that thousands of low-income children were at risk of losing health coverage because of projected funding shortfalls in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in FY2007. On December 9, shortly before adjourning for the year, Congress passed legislation that partially addressed this important funding problem. This is good news for the 14 states that are expected to exhaust their federal SCHIP funds before the end of next year. Without the funding fix, health care coverage for many low-income children would be in jeopardy.
Congress's solution, however, is only temporary, and it fails to provide the program with any new money. To address the immediate funding problem, Congress chose to redistribute federal funds from states that have not yet spent their SCHIP allotment to states that are expected to have shortfalls. As a result, the fix only delays the date when states will face shortfalls. In fact, the most recent analysis projects that states will face shortfalls as early as May 2007 unless Congress intervenes again (click here to read a full analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Congress is expected to address the impending shortfall problem as part of the broader SCHIP reauthorization process next year. Reauthorization provides a crucial opportunity for minority health advocates to review the important role that SCHIP and Medicaid have played in reducing racial and ethnic disparities in children's access to health care. Reauthorization is also a chance for Congress to build on SCHIP's success at reducing the number of uninsured children and to make sure that all low-income children have the health coverage they need.
You can find out more about children's health coverage through Medicaid and SCHIP, including the important role that these programs play in communities of color, by visiting Families USA's Medicaid and SCHIP Action Center.
Health Savings Accounts
Following last-minute negotiations in the House and Senate earlier this month, Congress passed a tax package (the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006) that included provisions to expand Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) in ways that will make the tax-favored accounts even more attractive to people with high incomes. Health Savings Accounts are accounts that allow individuals to accumulate savings tax-free to use for future health care costs as long as the account is linked to a high-deductible health insurance plan. The new bill expands the caps on the contributions that can be made to these accounts, meaning that higher-income individuals can now shelter more of their money from taxes through HSAs.
Encouraging enrollment in high-deductible health plans through HSAs could exacerbate a problem that exists in minority communities. African Americans and Latinos are already more likely to forgo care due to cost and to report being in poor health. The use of HSAs could actually increase racial and ethnic health disparities by imposing substantial cost barriers on groups that already suffer from worse health and are less able to afford the care they need.
For a more detailed examination of the risks that HSAs pose for minority communities, see the new fact sheet from Families USA, How HSAs Can Drain Your Wallet and Harm Your Health.
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- The Campaign for Children's Health Care, in partnership with six national hospitals, will host a national town hall meeting on January 11, 2007. The town hall meeting will be held in Washington, D.C. at 12:00 PM EST and will be broadcasted via satellite to participating hospitals across the nation. After the national event, local town hall meetings will conduct a discussion among the local audience, community leaders, and elected officials. For more information, please contact Maryellen Barreca at 202-879-0299 or by e-mail at mbarreca@childrenshealthcampaign.org.
- Families USA's annual conference, Health Action 2007, is fast approaching. Don't miss out on the opportunity to attend the new minority health track, which will feature sessions on advancing the health disparities agenda and building a movement; state activities to improve minority health and reduce disparities; incorporating policy and legislative advocacy into health disparities work; dispelling myths surrounding immigrants and reframing the issue of immigrant health; and policies and practices related to cultural competence and language access.
- The conference will be held January 25-27, so register now! If you are interested in attending but need more information, please contact Rea Pañares at 202-628-3030 or via e-mail at minorityhealth@familiesusa.org
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We’d like to hear from you!
If you would like to see your organization or event highlighted in a future edition of our newsletter, please send us a brief description of your organization and its activities, as well as your contact information. We also welcome guest authors for the Activities in the Field section of the newsletter. This section provides members of the minority health field with the opportunity to share their experiences and insights with other advocates. Please send all correspondence to: minorityhealth@familiesusa.org.
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