APIAHF

For Immediate Release
September 1, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO), the National Council of Asian Pacific Islander Physicians (NCAPIP) and Asian Health Services (AHS) today held a press briefing on the importance of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) support for a public plan in health care reform. Like most Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians feel the pain of our nation's broken health care system and are struggling to keep up with out of control medical costs. Nationally, more than one in six Asian Americans are uninsured and more than one in four Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are uninsured.

"It is critical that we act now to pass health care reform that meets the needs of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, and we have to make sure it includes immigrants," said Dr. Ho Luong Tran, president and CEO of APIAHF. "The AA and NHPI community will not be content to sit on the sidelines in the health care reform debate. We must advocate for the needs of our community, and make sure that a public plan option is included in health care reform."

A public plan option in health care reform will provide a truly meaningful choice of plans for those who need coverage and giving people a place to go when they can't find or afford private insurance. A public plan would compete with private insurance plans and would help make health care affordable for families and small businesses.

"A public plan option would not eliminate private insurance. It would give people who cannot afford private insurance an alternative. Simply put, if you like what you have, you can keep it. If you don't, or if your employer doesn't offer a plan, you will still have options - including the proposed public plan," said Dr. Winston Wong, policy committee chair for the NCAPIP. "Capitalism thrives on competition. The more choices we have to choose from, the harder health care insurance providers will work to serve their customers. A high-quality, affordable public plan will lower health care costs because private insurers would have to compete with each other and with the public plan, driving down the cost to consumers."

Small businesses are far less likely to provide health insurance for their workers than larger businesses, because of higher health care costs. Small businesses pay almost 20 percent more per worker than large firms for the same health insurance policy. Many of these higher costs are passed on to employees in the form of lower wages, and affect the profits of small businesses. Health Care Reform would allow small businesses to purchase health insurance through an insurance exchange, and would be able to choose among a number of plans that would provide better coverage at lower costs than currently available. An insurance exchange would also provide better and lower-cost options for workers in small businesses that do not offer health insurance.

"Almost 60 percent of Asian Americans receive health care through their employers and our communities will be looking for health reforms that protect employer-sponsored health care and strengthen the ability of small business owners to provide quality health care to their employees," said Dr. Tran. "Expanding health coverage will improve the health and productivity of employees. It can also reduce time away from work due to illness, benefitting the business and our economy."

Under the current proposals for health care reform, legal immigrants who qualify for Medicaid services are unfairly denied access to the program for five years even though they pay taxes like everyone else. Letting legal immigrants pay into the health care system and have access to health care will save money for our health care system in the long-run and will help bring down costs for everyone. Eliminating the mandated five-year waiting period for the federal Medicaid program would allow legal immigrants to access cost-saving preventive care, in many cases eliminating costly emergency room treatment for health problems that have become too severe to ignore.

"Poor access to health care leads to bad health, and both lead to higher costs for our entire country. Five years is too long to wait for legal immigrant women to receive routine preventive and prenatal care. People who get sick with H1N1 influenza cannot wait five years, and people who are diagnosed with cancer cannot wait five years either," said Sherry Hirota, CEO of AHS. "We must provide children and adults with access to essential, preventive care that keeps people healthy. Our health care system should treat everyone fairly by letting those who want insurance to buy it at a reasonable cost and allowing all those who are poor have access to Medicaid."

AAPCHO's executive director Jeff Caballero added, "Covering everyone is critical to keeping our nation's community health centers-the safety net for millions-open to those who need them most. Health centers treat everyone, immigrant or not, for the benefit of the whole community. If health care reform moves forward without keeping the most vulnerable in mind, these centers will face a difficult struggle to uphold their mission."

APIAHF is a national health policy organization for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. APIAHF's mission is to advocate for greater recognition, inclusion and engagement of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders on policies and programs that are critical to the health and well-being of our diverse and vibrant communities.

AHS is a federally qualified community health center providing medical, dental, and behavioral health serves to more than 21,000 patients for 35 years in Alameda County, California. AHS serves as national model in culturally and linguistically appropriate care and advocates for the Asian and Pacific Islander community by ensuring access to health care services regardless of income, insurance status, immigration status, language, or culture.

AAPCHO is a national association representing community health organizations dedicated to promoting advocacy, collaboration and leadership that improves the health status and access of Asian Americans & Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders within the United States, its territories, and freely associated states, primarily through our member community health centers.

NCAPIP advocates for public and private funding for initiatives and programs to improve access to, and the quality of, linguistically and culturally competent health care services and for increased and improved AA and NHPI focused research and data collection and dissemination. NCAPIP fosters professional development for AA and NHPI health professionals to enhance representation at leadership and governmental levels of health care policy and service delivery systems.

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