Health Care Reform: An Urgent Matter for Latinos

By Hector E, Sanchez on 11/09/2009 @ 11:51 PM

The Latino community must be fully engaged in the health care debate.  Health care is one of the basic pillars that provide the foundation for the social and economic advancement of any community and its absence can relegate people to a vicious cycle of poverty. The system that we have today is broken because it restricts and denies coverage to individuals that need it most. Latino families are losing their insurance due to onerous health care costs and pre-existing conditions, turning family medical emergencies into family financial emergencies that drive many into bankruptcy.

This is why the work of Latinos United for Health Care is critical. We need to make sure that the needs of our community are addressed when health care is debated and to make sure that no Latino is excluded from it.

In this debate Republicans and some Democrats are appeasing a conservative and/or anti-immigrant base by seeking to exclude immigrants from the reform, going as far as wanting to deny immigrants the ability to purchase private, unsubsidized insurance with their own money.  Denying families the ability to pay for basic insurance will only drive them to unnecessary and expensive emergency room visits that everyone else then has to pay for.  We should know by now that limiting health care access to some jeopardizes the health of all.

A public option must be at the core of any health care reform plan. The choice is clear: do we want a system in which corporations decide who is worthy of coverage and who is not, or a system that does not discriminate and covers all? It's ironic that the strongest advocates of a free market economy oppose the public option when it will ultimately stimulate competition, drive costs down and provide consumers with more affordable options. A public option will guarantee that Latinos have real choices when they are looking for accessible and affordable healthcare.

Health care reform has been postponed for far too long and we cannot wait any longer.  It is an embarrassment to this nation that 47 million people here are uninsured. Latinos know too well the impact that lack of health care coverage has on our communities. Health care must stop being a privilege and become a basic right that everyone is entitled to.