Contact: Yvonne Lee & Richard Cavosora
Date: Thursday, July 31, 2003
APIAHF Decries Information Ban of Proposition 54
San Francisco, California. The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (the Health Forum) decries the proposed ban on data collection on race, ethnicity, and national origin by the State of California and its local agencies. As one of the leading member organizations of the Asian Pacific American Coalition for an Informed California, the Health Forum strongly opposes Proposition 54, which will deny basic public health information from Californians that is essential for their collective health and well-being.
"California is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse states in the nation, Proposition 54 will not only compromise but devastate the state's ability to monitor and address the fundamental health needs of its citizens," commented Dr. Ho Tran, Chief Executive Officer of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum. "We need more distinguishing and disaggregated data, not less, and definitely not no data."
Since its inception as a national policy advocacy organization, the Health Forum has urged federal and state government agencies to collect and provide health and health-related demographic data that is more ethnic-specific, detailed, comprehensive, and reflective of the many of races and ethnicities in the United States. Health statistics and demographics that are disaggregated or broken down by distinct racial, ethnic, and national origin groups have been crucial in improving and advocating for more responsive healthcare policies that are culturally competent and linguistically appropriate. The Health Forum has also played a significant role in influencing the federal agencies such as the Bureau of Census and the Department of Health and Human Services to implement disaggregated data collection strategies that has revealed health differences and disparities among racial and ethnic groups. Without disaggregated data, Presidential Executive Order 13216--the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI)--that aims to improve the quality of life of AAPI's would not have flourished.
"There are significant differences in health status, dietary habits and healthcare between racial and ethnic groups," said Alice Chen, a Soros Advocacy Physician Fellow with the Health Forum. "Proposition 54 blinds us to real differences that affect public health. By prohibiting the collection of race data in healthcare, it will be harder to develop effective methods to treat and prevent diseases which disproportionately affect certain communities."
A recent University of California Irvine study illustrates the potential problem: 828 Vietnamese Americans adults in Orange County found that 13% had hepatitis B and 69% had been exposed to it, a rate that far exceeds those in the general population. Proposition 54 would prohibit public agencies, including research institutions such as the University of California, from collecting this type of data to provide a better understanding of the health problems faced by specific ethnic communities.
"Let us not confuse the important distinction between the need for basic information used for the public good and our own personal aspirations for a color-blind society," added Dr. Tran, "if Proposition 54 passes, we will all be equally blind."
