For Immediate Release
February 4, 2009
Bill Allows States to Eliminate Five-Year Waiting Period for Legal Immigrants
SAN FRANCISCO - The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) today applauded President Barack Obama for his leadership and support of including coverage of legal immigrant children in the bill to re-authorize the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The bill allows states to eliminate a five-year waiting period for legal immigrants to access the program.
"Eliminating the five-year waiting period will allow legal immigrant children and pregnant women to access essential, cost-saving preventive care, rather than seek emergency room care when health problems become too severe to ignore," said Dr. Ho Luong Tran, president and CEO of APIAHF. "We applaud President Obama and the House and Senate for their leadership in passing this legislation."
"This is a great first step and good news for families who can be assured that their children will have coverage. In the coming months, as we look at health care reform, we need to ensure that the entire family has health coverage." said Dr. Tran. "Healthy children are raised by healthy families and healthy communities. We need to ensure that we respond to the needs of all residents of our communities, including providing legal immigrant adults with access to public programs."
APIAHF is a national advocacy organization dedicated to promoting policy, program, and research efforts to improve the health and well-being of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. President and CEO Dr. Ho Tran is a pediatrician and received her MPH focusing on Community Health Services from the University of Illinois School of Public Health. She helped to establish the Asian Health Coalition of Illinois and served as co-Chair of the Illinois Governor's Asian American Council.
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