Josephine Mercado Is Recognized for Ongoing Efforts to Help Meet Health Care Needs of Medically Underserved Communities

Mercado Receives the Families USA Consumer Health Advocate of the Year Award

Washington, D.C. - Families USA, the national organization for health care consumers, presented Josephine Mercado with the Consumer Health Advocate of the Year Award at the annual Families USA Health Action conference.

The award, which has been presented every year since 1998, recognizes outstanding contributions on behalf of our nation's health care consumers. The award was presented to Mercado for her dedication to helping tens of thousands of central Florida residents gain access to health care, health education, and health referral services.

“Josephine Mercado’s story is remarkable, the story of a homemaker who went to college, earned her law degree, and has spent her professional career ensuring that those most in need find paths to health care and wellness,” Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, said today. “Josephine’s work is an example and an inspiration to all of us who struggle to win the quality, affordable health coverage that all Americans deserve.”

A native New Yorker, Mercado has founded and directed private, nonprofit health education, prevention, and referral organizations since 1991. She is currently the Executive Director of the award-winning Hispanic Health Initiatives Inc. (HHI), which she founded and which serves the central Florida counties of Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Volusia.

HHI was created to provide health care assistance to a multiethnic and multiracial community by dispelling health care myths; reducing health disparities; enhancing health literacy; and linking low-income, uninsured, and underserved populations to free or low-cost medical homes and social services.

Under Mercado’s stewardship, HHI has received a number of awards, including a Walt Disney World Community Service Award in 2002, the Florida Health Care Coalition Community Service Award in 2004, and the Juan Ponce de Leon Community Service Award in 2005. Mercado’s organization also received the prestigious Intercultural Cancer Council National HOPE Award for 2004-2005, of which only five are given across the nation biennially.

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

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