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October 2006
In this Issue:
New Resources
Activities in the Field
Policy Updates
Children's Health Coverage
Minority Health Bill
Upcoming Events
Alliance for Health Reform has published the newest edition of Covering Health Issues. This 300-page guide is useful for journalists and anyone interested in health policy. Each chapter contains an overview, key facts, expert sources with telephone numbers, story ideas, helpful Web sites, and a discussion of current policy proposals. The guide is available for download at www.allhealth.org/sourcebook2006/toc.asp.
Health Research and Educational Trust released Hospital Language Services for Patients with Limited English Proficiency: Results from a National Survey, which describes hospitals’ current language services, common barriers to providing care, and the specific resources hospitals say they need to improve health care for patients with limited English proficiency. Similarly, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report that explores ways to pay for language services. Specifically, it offers several recommendations on ways the federal government could reimburse for these services under Medicare. Both reports were funded by the National Health Law Program, which also released the Language Services Resource Guide for Health Care Providers. A Web cast of an event releasing these reports, and other resources on language access, is available online.
National Academy of Social Insurance has published a new report, Strengthening Medicare’s Role in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. This report examines Medicare’s role in reducing racial and ethnic health disparities and puts forth 17 recommendations for policymakers on how Medicare can move towards this goal.
Community Catalyst has published Consumer Health Advocacy: A View from 16 States, which examines consumer health advocacy in a cross section of states and finds that while political environments vary widely state-by-state, an organized consumer voice is critical in protecting and expanding health care access.
Kaiser Family Foundation published a report entitled Health Coverage and Access to Care for Hispanics in “New Growth Communities” and “Major Hispanic Centers,” which finds that Hispanics in “new growth communities” face greater barriers to health care than those in cities considered “major Hispanic centers.”
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American Medical Student Association and Minority Health
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) is committed to improving the health of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. AMSA is working to to see that two vital, federally funded programs—the Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) and the Center of Excellence (COE)—receive appropriate funding to continue their efforts at improving minority health.
HCOP and COE were established under Title VII as part of the Health Professions Education Partnership Act, which aimed to promote a diverse health workforce to better serve underserved communities. For over 20 years, the HCOP and COE programs have supported activities to recruit, train, and graduate culturally and linguistically skilled physicians to deliver effective health care to inner cities, rural areas, and other medically underserved communities; areas in which racial and ethnic minorities are often disproportionately represented.
The current 2007 federal budget has completely eliminated funding for all 74 existing HCOP programs and all but 4 of the 34 COE programs. These catastrophic cuts will exacerbate current health disparities and produce severe health care access issues for over 6 million people in a period of 10 years. In response to these cuts, AMSA has made fighting for the survival of these programs one of its top priorities. The AMSA initiative to reinstate HCOP and COE funding includes petitioning at medical schools and regional conferences, as well as an upcoming series of lobbying days to be held across the nation in the home districts of targeted congressional members.
If you are interested in working with AMSA on this initiative, please contact Vanessa Y. Calderón, AMSA’s Jack Rutledge Fellow for Universal Health Care and Eliminating Health Disparities, at jrf@amsa.org.
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Children’s Coverage
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) will be nearly $900 million short of the funding it needs in fiscal year 2007 to cover the number of kids currently enrolled. This means that thousands of kids are at risk of losing their health care coverage if Congress doesn’t act soon. Without increased funding, 17 states will experience shortfalls next year: Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities published an analysis of the amount of money needed in each state to make sure that kids don’t lose SCHIP coverage next year.
Senator Rockefeller and Representative John Barrow have introduced bills (S. 3913 and H.R. 6098, respectively) to bridge the funding gap. Congress left town without taking action on this important legislation, but they can still fix the funding problem when they return in November. Because racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately more likely to rely on SCHIP for health care coverage, it is crucial that Congress act on these bills so that the coverage gap facing minority children does not grow larger next year.
Minority Health Bill
On September 29, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the “Minority Health Improvement and Health Disparity Elimination Act” (S. 4024). Sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Barack Obama (D-IL), the bill allocates more than $500 million to reduce health disparities among racial, ethnic, and other health disparity populations through care and access; education and training; research and data collection; and leadership and collaboration.
The bill does not seek to expand health insurance coverage to racial and ethnic minorities, many of whom are disproportionately uninsured. However, the bill does address other important minority health issues such as cultural competence, health care workforce diversity, community health projects, and data collection and research. Although the bill is far from comprehensive in tackling the breadth and extent of health disparities, it is an important step toward reducing the health care gaps experienced by racial and ethnic minorities.
We are closely tracking the proposed legislation and will keep you informed of important updates. Congress might vote on the bill as early as next month, when members return after the elections for a lame duck session beginning on November 14. You can read the full text of the bill online by clicking here.
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- The Disparities Solution Center at Massachusetts General Hospital is hosting a Web seminar on “Navigating the Complexities of Collecting Race/Ethnicity Data.” This Web seminar will take place on October 31, 2006 from 2-3:30 p.m. EST. For more information, e-mail disparitiessolutions@partners.org.
- Joint Center Health Policy Institute is hosting a panel discussion and press briefing to release the Dellums Commission's final report with recommendations. The Commission's report is a two-year study that focuses on policies at the federal, state, and local levels that limit the life options of young men of color. The briefing will take place on November 15, 2006 in Washington, D.C. For more information, please contact Carla Gullatt at 202-789-3544.
- The Congressional TriCaucus is hosting their 2006 TriCaucus Health Summit, “The Power of Many: Putting Unity in Community.” This summit will explore health policy issues including the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Ryan White CARE Act, as well as other important topics such as chronic diseases, social determinants of health, and culturally and linguistically competent health care. The Health Summit will take place from November 17-18, 2006 in Washington, D.C. For more information, please contact Britt Weinstock at britt.weinstock@mail.house.gov.
- Vision y Compromiso: Promotoras/Community Health Workers Network is hosting its fourth annual statewide conference. Conference workshop topics include: improving access to health care, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, mental health, immigration’s impact on health, and other important topics. The conference will take place from December 1-2, 2006 in Burbank, CA. For more information, please contact Melinda Cordero at 626-864-6117 or via e-mail at promotorasinCA@aol.com.
- Families USA is pleased to announce that a new minority health track will be offered at Health Action 2007, its annual grassroots advocacy conference. The track will include 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 take place from January 25-27, 2006 in Washington, D.C. For 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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