APIAHF

 Lowering Costs for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders: How the Inflation Reduction Act Makes Health Care and Prescription Drugs More Affordable

The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum joined Protect Our Care to co-author “Lowering Costs for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders: How the Inflation Reduction Act Makes Health Care and Prescription Drugs More Affordable.” This report details the ways in which the Inflation Reduction Act reduces and eliminates barriers that AA and NHPIs have historically faced in accessing quality and equitable health care. APIAHF and Protect Our Care joined Representatives Judy Chu and Barbara Lee to discuss the report.

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 Report: Six Months into Unwinding: History’s Deepest Medicaid Losses Demand State Action

The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum joined a coalition of other health advocacy organizations to co-author “Six Months into Unwinding: History’s Deepest Medicaid Losses Demand State Action.” This report highlights the unprecedented and massive decrease in Medicaid enrollees. More than 70% of the 10 million people terminated from Medicaid may still be eligible, with their coverage ending simply because of missing paperwork and state-imposed red tape. We call on all states to reduce procedural termination rates to the lowest possible level.

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 The Hill: Economy, racial justice and abortion access among top concerns for Gen Z voters of color

More than 50 percent of AAPI voters said they have not been contacted by either party in the past year, said Juliet K. Choi, President and CEO of Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum. Despite this, nearly 75 percent of registered AAPI voters are motivated to vote.
Health care is the No. 1 priority for the AAPI community, with nearly 90 percent of respondents identifying it as top of mind. Health care included access to women’s health care and abortion rights. Inflation and the economy ranked second and crime third for AAPI Gen Z voters.
But the conversation around crime is nuanced and multidimensional, said Choi.

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 Newsweek: America’s Minority Population Is Growing—and Their Votes Are Up for Grabs

“The 2020 election showed us that [Asian American] and [Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander] voters have an outsized national impact, especially in those places where the margin of victory is very fragile,” said Juliet Choi, president and CEO of Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum. “We’ve been saying this for years and unfortunately, I do believe our voices are not heard loudly enough.”

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 Op-ed: President Biden: Accelerate Our COVID Recovery by Democratizing Our Data

Democratize our data.

The challenge of accurately diagnosing which areas require the most relief and vaccine focus is twofold: First, we must address the underreporting of certain racial groups when collecting data. Second, we must standardize our data collection effort across government agencies, including how we categorize demographic data. Incompleteness and lagging uniformity exacerbate a vicious cycle that directs resources inaccurately, driving up resource needs in certain communities, and foments distrust. We have an opportunity now to stop the cycle.

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 Readout of the White House’s Listening Session with Asian American and Pacific Islander Leaders on Rising Hate Crimes and Incidents Against Asian American Communities

Ambassador Rice and Congressman Richmond expressed gratitude for the participants’ courageous leadership in addressing acts of violence and bias against Asian American communities. They reiterated President Biden’s commitment to ending anti-Asian violence and bias, and confronting the role that some federal leaders played during the COVID-19 pandemic in promoting unfounded fear and bias against Asian American communities.

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 Biden targets diverse groups with vaccine hesitancy for COVID-19 funds

The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum is set to use its $1.8 million dollar award to address the “digital divide” in Asian American communities and offer additional simplified vaccination instructions in less broadly spoken but critical languages like Samoan, Marshallese and Chuukese, said CEO Juliet K. Choi.

Choi also said online messaging about vaccines would be prominent on popular communication platforms like WeChat, WhatsApp, and KaKao.

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 EDITORIAL: We need a Cabinet seat for racial equity

The everyday lives of Black, Latino, Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native communities are shaped by generations of systemic racism. The U.S. government played a significant role in setting these conditions. It only stands to reason that the same government has a responsibility to dismantle these systems, which have prevented our nation from being the truly free, truly equal land it hopes to be. A White House office dedicated to racial equity would be able to coordinate the full range of federal agency efforts to advance racial equity, centered on the administration’s promise to confront systemic racism and heal the “soul of our nation.”

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