For Immediate Release
February 25, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO - The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) today applauded U.S. President Barack Obama for calling upon Congress to address health care coverage and costs as a major priority this year.
The U.S. health care system is broken, and Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders disproportionately feel the pain of this broken system. The passage of the economic recovery package will benefit our communities by providing assistance to the states to ensure Medicaid benefits are available, and that unemployed workers will have assistance in keeping their health coverage. It also supports building a health information technology infrastructure that will improve health care quality for our communities by collecting data on race, ethnicity and primary language. While the legislation includes new funding for prevention programs, which will be more cost-effective in the long run, we must make sure it is targeted to ensure equitable health outcomes for everyone.
We have made progress by giving states the option to provide coverage to legal immigrant children in the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), but we must provide health coverage for the entire family. 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.
Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders continue to face barriers in accessing health services, often lack health insurance and face significant challenges as a result. We call upon Congress and President Obama to pass legislation that provides all persons in the United States affordable health care when they need it.
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.
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