Hispanics and the Health Issue
|
Print This Post
Dr. Elena Rios, president of the National Hispanic Medical Association was interviewed yesterday by Linda Wertheimer on National Public Radio. One third of all Hispanics in the United States are uninsured.
Dr. Rios believes that Hispanics are uninsured because of cultural reasons as well as economic ones.
According to Dr. Elena Rios, Hispanics “have health beliefs that are unique, lots of traditional ways of taking care of disease with teas and herbs and other things.”
The President of the National Hispanic Medical Association also recognized that families do not send their children or young adults to doctors. Another reason is other Hispanics come from other countries where their government provides health insurance so they don’t expect to have to pay for it themselves.
Dr. Rios also pointed out that there are also the trust factors. Hispanics cannot entrust these authority figures, and let alone government because there are mixed families with undocumented grandparents who do not want to be identified as such.
According to Dr. Rios, access to health care services by having affordable health insurance would be the change that would be very important for the Hispanic population. Of course -stated Dr. Rios- there would have to be lots of education and outreach as to the importance of purchasing health insurance.
She also pointed out that we would need the Hispanics to become the doctors and nurses in the clinics and in the hospitals in the communities that are going to have increased demand.
Currently, there are about 5 % of doctors are Hispanic and as for nurses, 2 %. So to have cultural competence training targeted to populations like the Hispanic family and the Hispanic community is a very big success story yet to be seen.
One of the questions raised in some of the town meetings held over the summer about health care reform was about coverage of undocumented immigrants. President Obama himself described them as “illegals” and stated that there would be no coverage for them.
According to Dr. Rios, the consequence of leaving them out is “that there will be more sickness carried by persons who are in our restaurants, who work in our hotels, who work in our communities that can impact every American citizen.”
However, Dr. Rios clarified that her organization agrees with President Obama on the need for health care reform for American citizens and those here by legal means, and that does not include illegal or undocumented.
The Americano
Related posts:
- Democrats Use Hispanic Heritage Month to Promote Obamacare Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine issued a statement...
- A Majority of Hispanics View Current Health Reforms Negatively August 29, 2009. As one of the least likely...
- President Obama Proclaims National Hispanic Heritage Month After Being blasted by a Latino Democrat September 15 marked the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage...
- Legislators in D.C. Worried About Health Care Thousands of Americans came to Washington, D.C. on Saturday...
- Obama Speaks to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute President Obama spoke at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s...