VOICES from the Community 2004:
Ho Tran's Introductory Speech
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning
On behalf of the Board of Directors and the staff of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, I welcome you to the year 2004 VOICES Conference entitled: Voices from the Community, Taking Action on Health and Wealth Disparities.
Three years ago, in the spring of 2001 many of you gathered at the Voices conference in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since then, we have made some significant progress.
- We have made local, regional and national advances in health promotion and access in collaboration with community organizations, private foundations and governmental agencies
- The Asian and Pacific Islander communities have received continuous funding from governmental agencies such as the Centers for Diseases Control, the Office of Minority Health, and the National Institute of Health, so that health programs and capacity building efforts are maintained and sustained
- The defeat of Proposition 54 in California is a testament to the strength of mobilization within our Asian and Pacific Islander communities, and a proof that when we mobilize and unite with other communities, we are a powerful force.
- More community health centers use brochures that are translated to different ethnic Asian languages.
- Thanks to the lists serves, websites and the 21 st century technology, information for, by and about our communities are more available than ever.
- Support groups have flowered and flourished. There are networks for individuals facing issues in chronic diseases, substance abuse, cancer, domestic violence, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and all other threats to the API health and well being
- We continue to collecting disaggregated data, conducting researches to debunk the Asian model minority myth.
However, this list of accomplishments does not compare to the number of setbacks and challenges we’ve faced since VOICES 2001.
- September 11 has left an indelible scar and the wounds are still being experienced at the personal, community, national and global levels.
- The introduction of the Patriot Act affected our immigrant communities by instilling fear among and distrust of the most innocent of citizens.
- The economy turned for the worse.
- And the War on Iraq still continues.
Since VOICES 2001, our country has turned from record surpluses to massive deficits. The president’s fiscal year 2005 budget predicts a deficit of $521 billion. Many states have experienced drastic budget reductions. In California, Governor Schwarzenegger announced $1.9 billion in budget reduction for the fiscal year 04-05, with many cuts to the Medicaid and State Children Health Insurance. This will disproportionately impact API families in California.
At the individual level, we feel it now, as government considers to imposing higher age requirements for Social Security and higher Medicare premiums. We also feel it as more and more unemployed Americans, their children and dependents are deprived of health insurance. Many of them are Asians and Pacific Islanders. In California, 45% of Koreans and 29% of Vietnamese do not have health insurance.
A new Medicare Prescription Drug Bill was introduced and passed. The bill provides prescription drug coverage at little cost to people with low income, including those who depend on Social Security, but insufficient coverage for the medium-risk members of the population. It also prohibits Medicare from negotiating better prices, and creates incentives for employers to drop retiree coverage and leaving many families and seniors without coverage for all or part of the year.
However, these daunting broad headlines nevertheless should not leave us complacent and deter us from taking action for the sake of our families, communities and country. Taking action is the theme of the conference. We take action so that the economic slowdown, the increased spending for national defense and national security would not and should not take priority over or overshadowing our basic human needs and rights, from water to education to medicine and health care.
As we embark on this conference, I hope that you share my excitement and enthusiasm for the coming three days. I look forward to three days of sharing and learning, learning about the current status of mental health in New York’s Chinatown after 9/11, about women’s health, how culture and language affect the access and quality of health care services, and through the advocacy seminars, learn how to get our voices heard on Capitol Hill.
I look forward to sharing the issues raised at the Having Our Say educational forum that we organized among our California partners a month ago – and we assume you will also have similar voices to bring to the table from your respective states and communities, as You are the voices of your community.
Last but not least, I look forward to bringing these voices to the legislators and their staff on the Hill, to banding together with you on May 25 th, when we make the Legislative visits, so that there is strength in our VOICES.
The Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum board of directors and the entire staff are proud to be here in Washington DC with you. We are honored that you have answered our call to come together at the nation’s capital to talk about how we can improve the health and well being of our API communities. You belong to 200 attendees, representing more than 80 organizations and bringing your voices from 23 states.
Thank you.
For the first plenary session of the conference, we have assembled a beautiful panel of distinguished speakers to speak about taking action on health and wealth disparities.
Dr. Nathan Stinson, Dr. John R. Lumpkin(power point presentation opens in new window)
For more information, contact the APIAHF Policy Division staff:
Gem Daus, Legislative and Government Affairs Coordinator, GDaus@apiahf.org
Dr. Alice Chen, Sorros Fellow
