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March 2012 eNewsletter

By fciammachilli
Created 03/27/2012 - 11:40

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APIAHF's Policy eNewsletter

March 2012
Welcome to the March 2012 edition of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum’s Policy E-Newsletter.  Each month’s newsletter features a compilation of new reports, briefs, and other resources related to timely Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander health policy issues.

This edition features information about the recent arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) before the U.S. Supreme Court, and new resources on health literacy. We hope you find these resources useful.  As always, we welcome your feedback about issues that might be of interest for future editions.

Highlights

The Policy Team joins health care supporters at the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments, March 27, 2012. From right to left: Paulo Pontemayor, Policy Analyst and Amina Abbas of VENG Group; U.S. Supreme Court Building; Priscilla Huang, Policy Director being interviewed by NPR; APIAHF Policy Team.

Resources for Supreme Court Watchers
This week in Washington, the Supreme Court is hearing three days of oral arguments on challenges to the Affordable Care Act. While we wait for a decision, expected to be issued in June, these resources may be useful in understanding the challenges to the law and what our communities stand to lose if it is not upheld.
  • Although television cameras are not permitted in the Supreme Court, audio recordings of the arguments and transcripts are available on the Supreme Court’s website here [5].
  • Families USA [10] has compiled this useful set of resources including talking points about the ACA, take action materials, links to amicus briefs, and a series of fact sheets on how the ACA helps the states.
  • APIAHF’s amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court can be found here [6], and our fact sheets about how health care reform helps Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities can be found here [7] (The Impact of Health Care Reform on Health Coverage for AA and NHPIs) and here [8] (Implementation of the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. Pacific Territories).
  • Read about the Congressional Tri-Caucus’ take on the Supreme Court challenges, the significance of the second anniversary of the ACA for communities of color and road ahead to health equity here [11].

New Resources on Health Literacy

Health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals can obtain, process, and understand the information they need to make informed choices about their health care. Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders of all ages, races, incomes, and education levels struggle with limited health literacy, but the groups who struggle the most are older adults, recent immigrants, and people with low incomes—many of whom are currently uninsured but will eligible for health insurance under the ACA’s expanded health coverage programs in 2014. This series of resources “Communicating with Plain Language [9]” from Enroll America offers easy tips for writing clear, concise, user-friendly materials to help consumers understand how to enroll in health insurance coverage.

Health insurance literacy encompasses the consumers’ ability to understand and use health insurance—for example, how to compare various plans. An important project of Consumers Union, the University of Maryland and American Institutes for Research is beginning to develop data about how consumers find and evaluate information about health plans, select the best plan for their own (or their families’) financial and health circumstances, and use the plan once enrolled. More information and details about how to participate in the research can be found here [12].
The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum influences policy, mobilizes communities, and strengthens programs and organizations to improve the health of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Learn more at http://www.apiahf.org/ [1].

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[9] http://www.enrollamerica.org/best-practices-institute/publications-and-resources/2012/communicating-with-plain-language
[10] http://www.familiesusa.org/supreme-court/
[11] http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/218111-two-years-later-what-we-learned-from-health-care-reform
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