FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Julian Teixeira
(202) 776-1812
jteixeira@nclr.org
Washington, D.C.—NCLR (National Council of La Raza) enthusiastically supports the action plan released today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which aims to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care for minority populations. NCLR applauds HHS for its proactive efforts to address these health challenges and would like to specifically recognize Dr. Garth Graham, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health, who has worked tirelessly to integrate an agenda that eliminates racial and ethnic disparities into the plans of HHS. NCLR also praises the essential leadership of Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, in creating accountability across all key health agencies to address the growing gaps in health care for minorities.
“This commitment to prioritizing the health of Latinos in the U.S. is very encouraging and could not have come at a more crucial time,” said Eric Rodriguez, Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at NCLR. “Hispanic Americans are disproportionately uninsured, receive a lower quality of health care and are more likely to go without needed services. When you factor in the alarming rates of obesity and risk of diabetes among younger Latinos, it becomes clear that we need to either find solutions now or face a health crisis in the future.”
Among the promising strategies that the action plan employs is to acknowledge and support the role of promotores de salud, or community health workers, who play a critical part in reducing the incidence and burden of chronic diseases among disadvantaged Latino communities. It also builds on several major provisions in the Affordable Care Act by supporting initiatives to expand, diversify and properly train our health care workforce, and it allocates resources to ensure that health care providers can offer competent language services and address culturally diverse populations.
NCLR wholeheartedly endorses this action plan, which includes not only specific changes that will be made to the health care system to better serve Latinos but also timelines and preliminary measures to ensure that the department stays on task. This is an important step toward ensuring that Hispanic Americans can access the services and high-quality health care that they need to improve their well-being.
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