I began researching for this intersection and I came across a news story that described a case in which two undocumented workers got into an automobile accident  and were taken to the hospital as an emergency room visit. The hospital provided the emergency treatment per the law and determined they would need long term care. In a practice they called “medical repatriation”, the men, still unconscious were put on a hospital chartered plane and flown to Veracruz, Mexico. The family of the workers had no say in this and the hospital stated that the family didn’t approve the move and could not contest it either.

In the past, I have written about the potential impact of leaving 11 million undocumented immigrants out of the health system and that our success as a country hinges on everyone here coming here, growing roots, raising their children, loving this country and following the laws, and participating in the further development of this country.  Reading that story made me set out to ask my friends working on the immigration side of things to get their input and what I found was interesting.  One noted that the mixing of both the health care reform conversation and the immigration reform conversation was “sensitive.” She explained that the anti-immigration voices “usually stand on the premises that undocumented as well as documented are free loaders and they will burden or are burdening the system. They allege falsely that they don’t contribute to the system at all although, it has been documented that they contribute more to the system that they get out of it.” At this point I envisioned not an intersection but more a train track with two trains – a health reform train and an immigration reform train set traveling on a head-on collision path towards one another.

I get it, healthcare reform ­was meant to save money by reforming insurance practices and creating a system in which individuals contributed to their own healthcare either through their employer, or self-paid through the exchanges.  Along with other ACA provisions, government would help healthcare cut wasteful spending by rewarding prevention and health outcomes rather than the flood of services when a person is sick.  In theory, this shift does results in saving tax payer money.  However as we shift to talk about the immigration reforms being crafted, we see that there is a large misconception that adding 11 million undocumented would add cost to the already burdened system of care.

This thinking is wrong on many levels. For one, an inclusive immigration reform policy would right the wrong that exists today.  Right now, as my colleague pointed out, many undocumented immigrants who work do pay into the system without any way to access any services. As it stands right now the undocumented cannot even access Medicaid, and even with healthcare reform the undocumented continue to be “locked out of care” so the perception that immigrants takes from the system is flat out wrong!

Immigration reform should not be subject to an “either/or” solution but a “and” solution.  The way I see it, movement on immigration reform compliments our healthcare reform efforts. I see that immigration reform would add many more people to the workforce, subsequently we would have more people legitimately paying into the system. Additionally as many undocumented are younger they will have a longer period of time to support the economy and the healthcare system.  Naturally immigrants would more fully participate in our society, buy homes, raise children, and work for their dreams.  As for their health, studies have supported the fact that new immigrants tend to be healthier than most Americans so it is likely that there is not as big a cost as is feared.

My vision of two colliding trains became one of a sail boat that caught a good wind.  These reforms can work together if we deliberately craft them with the intentional equity.

“I was under the impression that the Affordable Care Act is supposed to expand healthcare access but I am shocked to hear that someone like me could lose coverage,” said Frances Taylor, a single mother from Manchester.

Frances had a career job that offered health insurance, but during the downturn of the economy, she lost both her job and healthcare.

She now works two part time jobs to support her 17-year son, and relies heavily on Husky A, Connecticut’s Medicaid program for families with children with incomes below 185% of the federal poverty level, for basic healthcare needs. However, under Governor Malloy’s new budget plan, she would be one of 37,500 parents who would lose coverage.

In March, the Connecticut Health Foundation published a policy brief that assessed the impact of the Governor’s  budget cuts on families whose incomes fall between 133 percent and 185 percent of the federal poverty level. Children of families of those income levels would still be eligible for Husky A benefits, but their parents would not.  The Governor assumes that these low-income individuals will get coverage through the Health Insurance Exchange.

But according to the brief, the costs in the Exchange will be too high for Husky A parents even when federal subsidies are considered.

“We don’t have money for a lot of things, and it has meant a lot to us to have insurance through the state. It’s a frightening idea that we might not have this support, and it’s a difference of food or rent for us.” added Frances.

Frances Taylor at the April Husky A Rally at the Capitol. Photo by Patrick Comerford, PPSNE

Francis is speaking out. She is involved in organizing around this issue; and last month she spoke at a Caring Families Coalition rally and urged legislators to protect Husky A for parents.

Currently, the legislature’s appropriations committee rejected the Governor’s proposal to eliminate HUSKY A health insurance coverage in 2014. But the fight to protect this program is still underway.

Advocacy groups and organizers, like Caring Families Coalition, the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, Interfaith Fellowship for Universal Health Care and the Connecticut Center for a New Economy are encouraging people to take action and call their legislators to protect Husky A parents in a rally at the Legislative Office Building tomorrow at noon.

Photos Courtesy of Patrick Comerford, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England

The New York Times: Poverty as a Childhood Disease – “Poverty damages children’s dispositions and blunts their brains. We’ve seen articles about the language deficit in poorer homes and the gaps in school achievement. These remind us that — more so than in my mother’s generation — poverty in this country is now likely to define many children’s life trajectories in the harshest terms: poor academic achievement, high dropout rates, and health problems from obesity and diabetes to heart disease, substance abuse and mental illness.”>> Read More

CT Post: Asian-American shun mental health care – “Connecticut has just one clinic funded by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services that treats primarily Asian-Americans. The clinic, in Hartford, serves Connecticut’s Asian-Pacific community, which includes people from 21 countries who speak 35 different languages. The Office of Minority Health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that, of the Southeast Asians who seek mental health care, 70 percent have been diagnosed with PTSD.”>> Read More

Chicago NOW: Social justice the Rx for racial health-care gap, Cook County medical chief says – “African Americans in Chicago suffer from high rates of HIV/AIDS, diabetes and hypertension, as well as childhood obesity and infant mortality. Because they’re disproportionately low-income, they are less likely to have health insurance, and even fewer have dental coverage, according to a fact sheet produced by chief medical officer of the Cook County Department of Public Health.” >> Read More

Hartford Courant: Yale Researchers Urge More Street Work When Studying People With Both HIV, Hepatitis C – “Researchers need to work harder to screen high-risk populations for people who are infected with both HIV and hepatitis C, say the authors of a new Yale University study on the incidence of co-infection in the New Haven area.” >> Read More

Black Voice News: Health Centers to Help Uninsured Gain Access – “Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to provide $150 million to community health centers to assist in getting uninsured Americans prepared for the Oct. 1 opening of the Health Care Marketplace…About 60 percent of the existing community health centers are in communities where racial and ethnic minorities are the majority. Currently, about 21 percent of African Americans are uninsured, along with about 30 percent of Hispanics.” >> Read More

Health Canal: Racial minorities live on the front lines of heat risk, study finds – “The findings, published today (Tuesday, May 14) in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, highlight racial disparities at a time when the frequency and intensity of extreme heat waves is expected to increase with climate change. Racial groups are more likely to live in neighborhoods dominated by heat-absorbing hard surfaces, finds a UC Berkeley study. Such tree-deprived landscapes magnify the effects of heat waves.” >> Read More

CT Mirror: First clue to Obamacare insurance cost arrives – “And the proposals are still subject to review by the Connecticut Insurance Department, which could adjust what customers can be charged. Still, the filing, submitted Thursday and available today on the insurance department’s website, offers the first impression of what insurance is likely to cost under the Affordable Care Act, the law known commonly as Obamacare. As proposed, the average monthly premium for an individual would be $427, and for a small group it would be $445. But those would vary based on the specific plan the customer receives, and his or her age and county.  A HealthyCT spokeswoman said that it’s hard to tell whether this is a big change from existing rates because there really isn’t a plan with similar benefits on the Connecticut marketplace now. No other insurers have submitted their proposals yet. The insurance department had asked carriers to submit them by April 30, although it wasn’t a hard deadline.” >> Read More

Institute of Medicine: Getting Serious About the Social Determinants of Health – “We have long known that factors outside of medical care — race, education, housing, income, and other social determinants — are the most important drivers of how healthy or sick we are. It is not new information that people of color get unequal health care and have poorer health outcomes than their white counterparts; what is new is how solid the evidence is becoming that race and discrimination alone, regardless of income or education, have a direct negative effect on health.” >> Read More

HealthITBuzz: Can Health IT Reduce Health Disparities? New ONC Report Explores Opportunities – “Inequality related to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status is one of our nation’s most vexing problems, and it affects health status, access to health care, and health care quality. Unfortunately, health disparities in access to quality care are common. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) 2011 National Healthcare Disparities Report indicates that: Blacks received worse care than Whites for 41% of quality measures and Hispanics received worse care than non-Hispanic Whites for 39% of measures; Uninsured individuals aged 64 and under were far less likely to have a usual source of primary care than individuals with insurance; Low-income individuals received worse care than high-income people for almost half of the quality measures >>Read More

Huffington Post: Let’s Move On and Implement Health Care Reform – “Latinos are also more likely to die from complications of diabetes, from certain cancers, from AIDS and from work-related injuries. Although many causes affect my community’s health — such as access to nutritional foods, health education, language barriers and safe housing — affordability and access to quality care remain critically important. The ACA directly tackles these issues. Most importantly, the ACA expands access to more than ten million Latinos through the expansion of Medicaid, tax credits available through the health insurance marketplaces, and the ACA provision preventing insurance companies from discriminating against individuals with preexisting conditions. It also ensures Latinos have access to free preventative services, which saves lives and billions of dollars by protecting against illness before it requires more costly treatment.”  >> Read More

Image Credit: iStock Photo

CT Mirror: Sticker price for hospital care varies widely – “The federal government on Wednesday released a list of what hospitals charge for the 100 most commonly billed services. The data is from 2011, and lists the average amount charged to Medicare by each hospital and the average amount paid. The charges are akin to sticker price. Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance generally pay significantly less than hospitals’ listed charges. But people without health insurance are often stuck with bills for the sticker price. The degree of variation in prices surprised federal health officials.” >> Read More

The Cincinnati Herald: Does anyone care about the health of minorities and poor people in America? – “The following is a letter to Members of the Commission to Build a Healthier America from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President & CEO, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A. America is a country founded in the pursuit of a vision, the realization of an ideal. In words that are built into our national DNA, all of us are created equal, endowed with the inherent and inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. None of that is possible without good health. Unfortunately, today, when it comes to health and health care, we are not all equal, are we? The health of America depends on the health of all Americans and when huge numbers of us are left behind, more of the nation’s future is left behind as well.” >> Read More

New York Times: Poor People Have the Same Needs as Others – “The Oregon study uses a rigorous design to add to our knowledge about the impact of extending coverage to a poor population. The interpretation of the study has been far less compelling. Bottom line: if you were a middle class family with private insurance and your spouse’s cholesterol count or blood pressure had not improved in a two year period, would you want to go without insurance protection altogether? If you were a single adult making $15,000 a year or less, would you feel comfortable with a catastrophic coverage plan with a deductible of several thousand dollars a year?” >> Read More

The Root: Do Whites Have a Mental-Health Edge? – “With black Americans leading the country with troubling statistics in areas like unemployment, child abuse and neglect, and domestic violence, all of which can exacerbate stress, it is perhaps not surprising that the community leads the country in mental-health struggles. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, African Americans are still “more likely to experience a mental disorder than their white counterparts” but “less likely to seek treatment,” though Psychology Today recently noted that there has been an increase in the number of black Americans seeking treatment for ailments such as depression over the last decade. Men are less likely to seek treatment than women, regardless of race, meaning black men are among the least likely to seek treatment overall.” >> Read More

CT Voices: Connecticut 2014-15 Biennial Budget: Impact on HUSKY A Families – “There are currently tow proposals for the FY2014-15 biennial budget. Governor Malloy’s budget and the Appropriation Committee Budget.” >> Read More

Hartford Courant: Spurned By Lawmakers, Governor To Revise HUSKY Proposal – “Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is revising a plan to significantly reduce money for HUSKY A, the state-funded insurance program for low-income children and their parents, after his proposal failed to clear a legislative committee. Under Malloy’s plan, the change to HUSKY A would affect families whose incomes fall between 133 percent and 185 percent of the federal poverty level. Children of families at those income levels would still be eligible for HUSKY A benefits, but their parents would not.” >> Read More

White House Blog: What Health Reform Means for Latinos – and Young Sisters – “The Marketplace is one of the many important provisions of the Affordable Care Act.  The Act means a few other things for Latinos and their families: An estimated 6.1 million Latino Americans with private insurance now have access to expanded preventive services with no cost-sharing which include well-child visits, flu shots, blood pressure and cholesterol screenings, and mammograms for women;  3.9 million elderly and disabled Latinos who receive health coverage from Medicare have access to an expanded list of preventive services with no cost-sharing, including annual wellness visits with personalized prevention plans, cancer and obesity screening, and mammograms” >> Read More

Huffington Post: Making ‘Patient Protection’ Essential in Obamacare – “For decades, Americans have demanded a health care system that provides lifelong access to affordable care. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act looked to be a huge step in that direction. However, recently issued regulations for implementing health care reform are threatening to undermine the Act’s fundamental goal of achieving health equity — especially for marginalized racial, ethnic and sexual minority groups. Specifically, health officials have inadvertently or otherwise made some mistakes while developing the new rules that will govern insurance benefit standards. Congress needs to act now to fix these flaws. If it fails to do so, people living with HIV — as well as millions of other Americans — could be denied essential health care services and treatments.” >> Read More

Connecticut Health I-Team: Asian-Americans Shun Mental Health Care – “Connecticut has just one clinic funded by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services that treats primarily Asian-Americans. The clinic, in Hartford, serves Connecticut’s Asian-Pacific community, which includes people from 21 countries who speak 35 different languages. The Office of Minority Health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says of the Southeast Asians who seek mental health care, 70 percent have been diagnosed with PTSD.” >> Read More

Image Credit: iStock Photo

Washington Posts: USDA expands SNAP access at farmers markets – “The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday announced a $4 million plan to increase the use of federal food credits at farmers markets. The initiative will expand wireless access to qualified retailers that do not already accept payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, which provides financial assistance to help people with little to no income purchase food. “ >> Read More

Forbes: Oregon Health Experiment Shows That Having Health Insurance Is Different Than Being Healthy - ”A new study out of Oregon tries to answer an old question, and comes up with the same answer. Is having health insurance the same as having good health?” >> Read More

The Seattle Medium: New Guidelines Issued To Improve Cultural Competency - “The Department of Health and Human Services has updated its standards for cultural competency in health care, hoping to narrow the racial and ethnic health disparities common throughout the United States… National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care – also known as CLAS Standards— serve as guidelines for facilitating “culturally and linguistically appropriate health services.” >> Read More

IFAwebnews.com: Latino doctors concerned about access for Hispanic patients with ACA – “According to NHMA, about one in three of the 50 million Hispanics in the U.S. have been consistently uninsured due to prohibitive costs and working for small businesses that also found costs too high to stay in business. NHMA reported that a recent Health Affairs study found that 7 million Americans could face primary care physician shortages as ACA increases health insurance coverage, with online health insurance exchanges and tax credits for citizens.”>> Read More

CT Post: Medicaid improved mental health for uninsured – “The study found that having Medicaid reduced rates of depression by 30 percent and virtually eliminated catastrophic medical expenses due to a serious accident or the sudden onset of a life-threatening illness. People with Medicaid had better access to doctors, preventive care, prescriptions and hospitals. They also used their benefits, consuming about $1,200 a year more per person in health care services than do the uninsured.” >> Read More

Real World Health Care: It Takes a Community for Effective Disease Prevention and Management – “Many Americans – especially those with low incomes, have no insurance or face other socio-economic barriers to primary care – often distrust the health care system, or lack the resources and awareness needed to take charge of their health. As a result, they wait until health issues and chronic disease escalate enough to drive them into the emergency department, where they receive short-term solutions that drive up the total cost of health care.” >> Read More

The Hartford Guardian: Connecticut and Other States Seek “Best Practices” to Implement Health Care Reform – “Connecticut is one of several states that have already opted in and have begun to expand Medicaid. Malloy said that the legislature has just started deliberating over this ”monumental task” of expanding access by setting up health care marketplace to sell insurance to about 242,000 uninsured people in Connecticut. Part of delivering services to traditionally underserved population also includes diversify the workforce that serves them. Groups such as Access Health CT have also begun that process, according to Access CEO Kevin J. Counihan. It’s uncertain, however, how much progress has been made toward implementing networks to engage health consumers in Connecticut. But officials said they are working to ensure health equity, a term bandied about by stakeholders. >> Read More

CDC: The Affordable Care Act Helps People Living with HIV/AIDS – “The Affordable Care Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation in the fight against HIV/AIDS in our history. As of September 23, 2010, insurers are no longer able to deny coverage to children living with HIV or AIDS. The parents of as many as 17.6 million children with pre-existing conditions no longer have to worry that their children will be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Insurers also are prohibited from cancelling or rescinding coverage to adults or children because of a mistake on an application. And insurers can no longer impose lifetime caps on insurance benefits. Because of the law, 105 million Americans no longer have a lifetime dollar limit on essential health benefits. These changes will begin to improve access to insurance for people living with HIV/AIDS and other disabling conditions and help people with these conditions retain the coverage they have.” >> Read More

New York Times: Medicaid Access Increases Use of Care, Study Finds – “Come January, millions of low-income adults will gain health insurance coverage through Medicaid in one of the farthest-reaching provisions of the Obama health care law. How will that change their finances, spending habits, use of available medical services and — most important — their health? New results from a landmark study, released on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, go a long way toward answering those questions. The study, called the Oregon Health Study, compares thousands of low-income people in Oregon who received access to Medicaid with an identical population that did not.” >> Read More

Image Credit: iStock Photo

Huffington Post: Our Diversity is What Will Drive New Levels of Excellence – “Health care is a field that is most affected by the new diversity. There is a growing body of literature, most notably the Institute of Medicine’s 2002 “Unequal Treatment” report, that documents the negative impact of differences in health-care treatments and outcomes between racial groups, and the resulting economic burden to the entire health-care system.” >> Read More

NBC Latino: Mentally deficient immigrant detainees get counsel – “Federal officials are implementing a new policy that guarantees legal counsel to detained immigrants who can’t represent themselves because of severe mental disorders or conditions that render them mentally incompetent. The national policy announced by Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security officials this week comes after a years long legal fight led by the American Civil Liberties Union through a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles. “Providing legal representation to people with significant mental disabilities is not only legally sound, but also the only humane way to run our immigration system,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California and the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. About 34,000 immigrants are detained daily and more than 1,000 of them have mental disabilities of some kind, according to the ACLU. >> Read More

New York Times: Racing to Spread Word About New Health Plans – “President Obama and the Democrats passed the 2010 health care law to make medical insurance available to more than 30 million people who do not have it. But with recent studies showing that as many as three-fourths of those people are unaware of their new options, health care providers are joining community organizers and insurance companies in an ambitious effort to spread the word in the six months remaining before the health plans become available. Here in Michigan, a small army of doctors and nurses, hospital employees, insurance agents and advocates for low-income people is mobilizing for the next phase of this revolution in domestic social policy: finding people who are eligible for health insurance and getting them enrolled.” >> Read More

the CT mirror: Strategizing on helping the uninsured with health care reform - “Other discussions focused on how addressing health disparities is not just a social justice matter, but will make employees happier, healthier and more productive. Still others focused on the idea of creating a “patient centered health home” in which the health care provider takes responsibility for all their patients’ health care needs, such as following up on tests and arranging visits with specialists” >> Read More

Huffington Post: One Can Of Soda A Day Raises Diabetes Risk, Study Suggests – “Drinking just one 12-ounce soda a day may increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, a new study from Europe suggests. In the study, people who drank a 12-ounce sugar-sweetened soda daily were 18 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes over a 16-year period compared with those who did not consume soda. And people who drank two sodas daily were 18 percent more likely to have a stroke than those who drank one; those who drank three sodas daily saw the same risk increase compared with those who drank two, and so on.” >> Read More

Health Works Collective: Embracing Technology and Providing Care: The Role of Email and Texting in the Patient Encounter – “As we become more connected as a society, it is inevitable that healthcare moves toward more of a virtual online presence as well. Telemedicine and remote follow up is becoming more common… The WSJ piece profiles a few physicians and highlights the way in which each uses email to communicate with patients. Based on recent national surveys, it appears that currently nearly 30% of physicians communicate via email to their patients. Nearly 18% actually used text messaging to interact with patients. Estimates suggest that only 5% of American patients included in the survey use email or text to communicate with their physicians or other healthcare providers.” >> Read More

 Image Credit: iStock Photo

It is no coincidence that those who often live in the most polluted and environmentally hazardous areas are low-income people of color. Environmental racism and environmental injustice are real things that impact real people every day. And while the long-term goal of the environmental movement might be to stop the degradation of our environment and reduce environmental harms generally, it is also important that we “equalize” the harms insofar as we decrease the disproportionately large environmental health risks faced by society’s most vulnerable populations.

These risks are not speculative: “Toxic Wastes and Race” explains that children of color who live in poor areas are more likely to attend schools filled with asbestos, live in homes with peeling lead paint, and play in parks that are contaminated. What’s more, these same children are nearly 9 times more likely than economically advantaged children to be exposed to lead levels so high they can cause severe learning disabilities and neurological disorders. Additionally, research shows that 96 percent of African American children who live in inner cities have unsafe amounts of lead in their blood.

Environmental health issues have detrimental effects on a myriad of other areas in an individual’s. As Jonathan Kozol explains in his book “Savage Inequalities” instances of environmental racism in East St. Louis, Illinois directly impact access to educational opportunities for low-income youth of color. Youth who are exposed to high levels of environmental containments often miss large amounts of school as a result of resulting health affects. The concrete health impacts of environmental racism are a part of a vicious cycle of poverty that is seemingly impossible to escape.

To me these realities are unsettling; these realities bring to the forefront a new face of the environmental movement: The Black Face of Green. This is face that I want people to organize and mobilize around. An issue as complex as this one requires innovative and creative solutions, and over the next year I will use Health Justice CT to blog and document the ways in which I personally attempt to impact environmental racism and injustice.

On Earth Day 2013 my personal plea is that we stop simply thinking about environmentalism as a cute attempt to recycle more and conserve natural resources. Rather, I want that we actively take on the health injustices along racial and ethnic lines that exist as a result of environmental realities. For the next year, let’s broaden our understanding of environmentalism and fight for our friends, family members, and neighbors in communities that are suffering under the yoke of environmental racism.

Make sure you follow my journey of the next year as I contribute to Health Justice CT, and you can follow me on twitter at @MrWesleyDixon. Join me in the effort to make The Black Face of Green a powerful movement!

John Dankosky, WNPR News Director and Host of Where We Live. Photo By: Chion Wolf

Just in case you missed it, here’s some of the latest health disparities news, posts and reports from this past week.

Your Public Media: Changing Health Outcomes – “In Connecticut, pregnant black women are 2x more likely to deliver a smaller baby early, Black men are 2x more likely to die of prostate cancer than White men…with overall life expectancy for Black men significantly shorter than for their White peers. But  why does this disparity exist?  And what can we do to change it? Today, where we live, we’ll listen to a live conversation we taped in front of a studio audience as part of our Health Equity Project.”>> Read More

Kaiser Family Foundation: Impact of the Medicaid Expansion for Low – Income Blacks Across States – “As states continue to weigh whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, one important consideration is the impact of the expansion for low-income people of color. While the Medicaid expansion will increase coverage options for all low-income Americans, it will disproportionately impact low-income people of color. To provide greater insight into this potential impact across states, this brief provides data on the uninsured by race and ethnicity across states based on analysis of the 2011 American Community Survey.” >> Read More

FDA: Making Health and Health Care Equal for All – “What exactly are health disparities? And how can they be reduced or eliminated? At the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), achieving equality in health and health care is part of the mission of the Office of Minority Health (OMH). The office was established in 2010 by the Affordable Care Act to help the agency address the needs of Americans who may be more vulnerable because of their race, ethnicity or other factors. Health disparities, according to a report issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), are differences in health that are associated with social, economic and environmental disadvantages. The National Institutes of Health defines them as differences in “the incidence, prevalence, mortality and burden” of diseases among certain population groups.” >> Read More

WonkBlog: Hospitals serving the uninsured face challenge under Obamacare - “Hospitals that treat the most vulnerable patients may have the toughest time weathering spending cuts under President Obama’s health-care law… Under the Affordable Care Act, the safety-net hospitals will gain a new source of revenue when millions of the uninsured gain coverage. At the same time, the law’s spending cuts could prove challenging for hospitals that tend to operate with relatively small profit margins.” >> Read More

Harford Business: CT Health Foundation pushes strategic overhaul – “The state’s largest health foundation is announcing a major strategic overhaul that will include a greater focus on expanding health equity for Connecticut residents. The Connecticut Health Foundation said its new strategy will focus on helping more people—particularly minorities— gain access to better care and it comes just as key components of Affordable Care Act are set to kick in.” >> Read More

CT Latino News: Autism Rates Growing Fastest in Latino Children – “The Latino population is one of the fastest growing in terms of incidence of autism,” Jennifer Bogin, Director of the Connecticut Division of Autism Services, said. Higher numbers are attributed to “cultural differences and how the disability is viewed within the family,” she said, adding that some Latino families are less likely to bring their children to a specialist for a diagnosis. “Multi-generational families take a ‘wait and see’ attitude, because maybe the father didn’t begin speaking until he was five.” Sara Reed, of the Connecticut Autism Spectrum Resource Center in Wallingford, said there has not been enough outreach in identifying autism in Latinos.  >> Read More

Huffington Post Black Voices: Church Health Programs Needed, But Not At The Pulpit, African-American Survey Shows -  “In a survey of more than 1,200 members of 11 African-American churches in North Carolina, an overwhelming majority of congregants said they believe that the church has a responsibility to promote healthy living within the community they serve.” >> Read More

RedOrbit: Some Minorities Believe They Are Less Likely To Get Cancer Compared To Whites – “Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues analyzed national data to investigate the differences in cancer prevention beliefs by race and ethnicity. They found that minorities, including blacks, Asians and Hispanics, have differing beliefs about cancer prevention and feel they are less likely to get cancer than did whites. The researchers concluded that more culturally relevant information about cancer prevention and risk needs to reach minority populations.”  >> Read More

Huffington Post: Health Equity for Older LGBT People of Color – “A new policy report from SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) seeks to challenge that silence.”Health Equity and LGBT Elders of Color” explores 10 policy areas where health and wellness can be improved for older LGBT people of color (a population that encompasses multiple groups that are diverse across race, ethnicity, culture, language of origin and more). The report examines policy topics such as federal funding gaps, the ways in which health reform implementation can reach marginalized people, LGBT-specific barriers within programs such as Social Security and much more.” >> Read More

Image credit: Chion Wolf, WNPR, Where We Live

It is not difficult to state the importance of employment. However, it is a real magic trick to get all parties to understand why it is important to make available some forms of health care for all persons living in the United States, including undocumented persons (which is a matter of contention for another post).

In the debate  for affordable access to care, my crusade revolves tightly around personal choices, health responsibility, and how they contribute to health outcomes. Preparing myself to be a health care professional, I have established great value in the old saying, “Practice what you preach.” Interestingly enough I have been challenged in this, hearing statements like “you are an educated black man” or my favorite “you are already fit so it’s easy for you.” The truth is, my genetic makeup has set me up to be at risk for cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer, alcoholism and other abusive behaviors (if you subscribe to nurture and learned behaviors).

Doctors and policy makers play a major role in the health of the nation. That cannot be overstated. However, the general public seems to find it acceptable to not blame an individual who does not take responsibility for negative health outcomes related to poor personal choices.

I generally give a pass in the way of needing additional help to access and reach basic care needs i.e. mental health patients and the like, however it is extremely difficult for a pass to be given to individuals who have insurance, make the choice not to use it that consequently lead to poor health outcomes.

I pose this question; what would health look like if there were no health insurance system? I argue the ability to go to the doctor has little to do with a person’s choice to eat poorly, smoke, drink to excess and refuse to engage in physical activity. Additionally and more upsetting are individuals who have insurance and do not maintain proper check up.

My point is that many a large number of Americans have access to basic care, and do not use it.  That the health status of the nation does not measure to the level of access and great yearly costs.  For individuals with access to care, there are NO excuses for not maintaining basic care in the way of physicals and dental care.

In a previous conversation I pointed out the following, “…I am ready and waiting for ‘my’ Safe Living Discount.” Now imagine a system that had a checks and balance program where we received money back for “Safe Living” or conversely a Ticket for “Bodily Misconduct.” I VOTE YES.

Image credit: iStock

Instagram image by dh_cohen

The Kaiser Family Foundation: Immigration Reform and Access to Health Coverage: Key Issues to Consider – “The Obama administration and a bipartisan group of U.S. senators recently released blueprints for immigration reform proposals that include a roadmap to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States. Among the key issues to consider as part of immigration reform is to what extent these aspiring citizens will be able to access affordable health coverage options at various stages on the roadway to citizenship.” >> Read More

CNN Health: Helping patients navigate the health care system – “Patient navigation is a relatively new field in the health care industry. A navigator’s primary role is to remove the obstacles patients face in accessing or receiving treatment. More hospitals are creating these positions to help patients traverse an often-confusing medical system.”>> Read More

The Root DC Live: Urban League releases “State of Black America.”  - “There has been important progress in the last 50 years: decrease in poverty, increases in high school graduation rates and enrollment rates,” said Urban League President Marc Morial.  “But the  disparity between  black America and white Americans when it comes to jobs,  income, health care and wealth remain too large.”>> Read More

Journal of Public Health Management and Practice: Making Health Equity a Core Part of All Public Health Work - “If you work in public health, a foundational part of your job is health equity. Simply stated, until and unless we address health equity, we will not be a healthy nation… State and territorial health officials are in a unique position to raise awareness and lead state and local action to address health disparities. ASTHO recognizes that to make progress in improving the health of all populations and achieving greater health equity, states must have access to information on effective practices as well as resources to assist in the implementation of effective public health policies and programs.” >> Read More

Huffington Post: Choice and Information Are Key to Better Health – “Latinos bear one of the heaviest burdens of obesity in the country. So, now more than ever, developing healthier habits is important. It will take a little bit of re-programming, some planning and whole lot of patience. It will also require access to the right information, nutrition education and learning to practice moderation.” >> Read More

Magic 106.3: Obama Administration: ‘Affordable Care Act’ Can Help Minorities Overcome Health Disparities – “Consider these well-known statistics: About 18.8 percent of African-Americans under the age of 65 do not have health insurance, minorities who live and work in low socioeconomic circumstances are at an increased risk for mortality, and Blacks have a higher death rate than Whites for treatable diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke, according to federal statistics. And disparities in the national homicide rate by age, race and ethnicity are evident in the daily headlines, especially among Black males in urban areas, according to the Health Disparities and Inequities report released in 2011 by the Centers for Disease Control, the most recent figures available. >> Read More

Kaiser Family Foundation:  Health Coverage for the Hispanic Population Today and Under the Affordable Care Act – “The Affordable Care Act (ACA) could help many uninsured Hispanics through the law’s expansion of Medicaid and the creation of new health insurance exchange marketplaces with tax credits to help moderate-income people purchase coverage. This brief provides an overview of the Hispanic population in the U.S., their health coverage today and the potential impact of the ACA coverage expansions.” >> Read More

Courant: Consumers Could Avoid New Health Reform Rules, But Only For A Year – “Health insurance companies are letting millions of Americans renew their current coverage for another year — and thereby avoid changes under the federal healthcare law. That may offer a short-term benefit for certain consumers and shield some of those individual policyholders from potentially steep rate increases. But critics say this maneuver could undermine government efforts to remake the insurance market next year. At issue is a little-known loophole in President Obama’s landmark legislation that enables health insurers to extend existing policies for nearly all of 2014. This runs contrary to the widespread belief that all health insurance must immediately comply with new federal rules starting Jan. 1, when most provisions of the law take effect.” >> Read More

Forbes: Realigning Health with Care – “The U.S. can also get better health with fewer resources if we broaden the healthcare place: “exporting” medical services to easier-to-reach locations like shopping malls and community centers, and “importing” connections to healthy food, safe housing, and other community-based resources into clinics.” >> Read More

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