Commentary: Latino Health Care Needs Community Effort

By SANDRA RODRGUEZ

As a Latina, from a community with the highest rate of people who are uninsured, with greater risk for certain diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and from a state with one of the highest rates of uninsured, I am at the side of the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Richard Carmona, and Gov. Bill Richardson to help eliminate health-care disparities and close the health-care gap that affects millions of people in America.

According to several reports, there are a total of 45 million Americans and 8 million children without health insurance. One out of every three Hispanics across the country is uninsured. New Mexico ranks third in the nation, behind Texas and Louisiana, with 26 percent of adult residents uninsured.

The New Mexico Human Services Department reports that 23 percent of Hispanics in the state lack health insurance and 42 percent of Hispanics living below the poverty line are uninsured. Many more are underinsured — unable to afford needed medical services, particularly medications.

You may wonder what I can do to help. After all, the situation — which politicians, legislators, health-care administrators, doctors, nurses and policymakers are all wrestling with — is complex. Lack of health insurance, poverty, lifestyles, cultural attitudes and unequal treatment in the delivery of quality medical care are all factors that contribute to the problem of health-care disparities.

I am not one magic solution. A comprehensive, multilevel strategy will be necessary, such as the one recommended by the Institute of Medicine in its report, Unequal Treatment: Understanding Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care.

However, I am Latina, a source of strength that holds the Latino family together. Like women all over this country, I am entrusted to care for the health of my family. As such, we have the obligation to educate others by spreading the word of what we know about health and health-care resources.

One of those resources is the recently launched Partnership for Prescription Assistance. PPA serves as a gateway to more that 475 public and private patient- assistance programs — including more than 150 programs offered by pharmaceutical companies — to help qualifying patients who lack prescription coverage get the medicines they need. Like being uninsured, lack of prescription-drug coverage can have a negative impact on health outcomes.

According to a recent national study by the Center for Studying Health System Change, “More than 14 million American adults of all ages with chronic conditions — more than half with low incomes — could not afford all of their prescriptions in 2003.”

Among seniors with serious health problems, such as congestive heart failure and diabetes, one-third of those who lacked drug coverage reported skipping doses to make their prescriptions last longer.

MANA, a national Latina organization with chapters in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, is holding its first Latina Summit on “Bridging the Gap to Prescription Drug Coverage.”

Our mission is to educate Latinas through leadership development, community service and advocacy to improve the quality of life for Hispanics. By providing information on the programs that exist to help those who are uninsured gain access to prescription medicines they need, we are doing just that.

Earlier this year, during an observance of National Public Health Week, U.S. Surgeon General Carmona said, “America has its own unique disease. We suffer from racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare.”

Some of the cultural behaviors among Latinos that have been cited by medical professionals as also leading to disparate health outcomes are our tendencies to self-diagnose (“I must be anxious”) and self-treat (“Give me a cup of manzanilla or yerba buena tea”).

I say we take that to another level and self-heal.

If racial and ethnic disparities in health care is an American disease, let’s self-heal by first acknowledging the condition.

Let’s self-heal by supporting the efforts and initiatives of health leaders who are addressing the myriad of issues, such as lack of access to prescription medications.

Let’s self-heal by mobilizing our community and helping each other by spreading the word about health resources that can help millions of Americans.

Sandra Rodrguez, Ph.D., is vice chairwoman of MANA, a national Latina organization, and director of the education department at the College of Santa Fe.