Dear Colleagues,
President Obama deserves our commendation for his unwavering dedication to answering the basic needs and honoring the fundamental right of all Americans: access to affordable, high quality health care. AAPCHO emphatically agrees with the President that “Now is the time to deliver on health care.” Indeed, as many of you will agree, we can't afford not to.
Just as important, I believe that we also cannot proceed with any positive and meaningful change to a broken system without the following:
A strong public health insurance option. A public option is crucial to controlling costs and providing security to our families and community. Like many Americans, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders households struggle to keep up with rising premiums and some have to go without coverage entirely. In AAPCHO member health centers, more than one out of three patients cannot afford private health insurance, nor do they qualify for Medicaid—they must choose between buying daily necessities and buying health care services out of pocket. An affordable basic public option would provide such individuals and their families with the security that comes with quality health coverage, while also protecting all consumers from skyrocketing insurance costs currently set by for-profit insurance providers.
Fair treatment for legal immigrants. Legal immigrants play a tremendous role in supporting the U.S. economy through hard work, taxes, and contributions to Social Security. Imposing a 5-year waiting period to access public health programs on legal immigrants—including children and pregnant women—will force many families to delay necessary health and preventive care services. Comprehensive primary care services such as the prenatal care, cancer screenings and immunizations provided at community health centers not only improve people’s health, but also curb emergency room use, saving the U.S. more than $15 billion health care dollars annually. Thus, removing waiting periods for legal immigrants to access affordable basic health care is not only the fair thing to do, it’s also the right thing to do.
Our core conviction that health care is a right, not a privilege, anchors all of AAPCHO’s 20-plus years in advocating for better access to affordable, high quality health care for our underserved Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. President Obama’s plan honors and protects this right for all Americans. A right rooted, as he said, "on a belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play."
In solidarity,
Jeffrey Caballero, MPH
Executive Director, AAPCHO
