Latinos Have a Stake in Health Care Reform
New America Media, Commentary, David Pacheco, Posted: Jul 25, 2009
Editor’s Note: Lack of health insurance is a growing problem for older Americans, and for Latinos it is especially serious. By 2050, Latinos will make up a quarter of all Americans aged 50 to 69, a reason for them to become more vocal and active participants in the health care reform debate now occurring in Congress, says AARP’s David Pacheco.
The nation’s broken health care system has finally reached the top of the federal agenda. There is a flurry of activity on Capitol Hill as lawmakers tackle the problem in earnest to meet President Barack Obama’s request to have a bill from Congress before the end of the year.
Public actions show that Obama is committed to appointing Latinos to important positions. For secretary of labor, he appointed Hilda Solis, a staunch supporter of workers’ rights and health care reform. And recently, Obama tapped Sonia Sotomayor for a Supreme Court seat, making her the first Latino in history to be nominated.
We know health care is a cause for concern for Latinos. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 34 percent of Latinos are uninsured. AARP studies indicate that less than half of employed Latinos aged 50 to 69 receive health benefits from their employers.
Skyrocketing health care costs are hurting families, stifling job growth and hurting small businesses’ ability to grow. America spends twice as much on health care as any average developed nation. Yet we don’t get a good return on our investment. We need common-sense solutions that ensure access to affordable, quality health care for all generations.
AARP is very involved in the fight to improve access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans. We believe comprehensive reform should include measures that prevent insurers from denying coverage; provide access to coverage for those without employer-sponsored insurance; and provide adequate subsidies so total premiums and out-of-pocket costs do not exceed 10 percent of income and no more than 5 percent for low-income families.
Americans aged 50 to 64 are taking a hard hit in these times of shrinking employer-sponsored health coverage. They have become the fastest growing group of uninsured. The problem is greater among Latinos who are losing jobs at a faster rate than the general population. And to compound the problem, as working men and women in this age group are losing jobs and, consequently, employer-sponsored health care, they are finding it more and more difficult to get affordable individual coverage.
As funds dwindle for critical state programs and services, all eyes are turning to the federal government for leadership and action to improve health care for all Americans.
For example, the current patchwork of programs that serve the most vulnerable people is so cumbersome that millions are not getting the help they need. Four million people who need help paying for their prescriptions can’t get it. And two thirds of those who are eligible for assistance with preventive care go without because the process is too complicated.
At this crucial moment, we have the opportunity of a lifetime to fix our broken health care system. Obama has promised health reform before the end of the year, but we need to make sure that Congress follows through.
We will see no benefit if we are silent about health care reform. We pay taxes, we move the economy, and we keep the wheels of commerce turning, which means we have power and influence.
Latinos will make up a quarter of all Americans aged 50 to 69 by 2050. In 2007, Latino workers age 50 to 69 earned a total of $126 billion. Our contributions will more than double between 2007 and 2020 to $303 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars and then nearly triple again – to $892 billion by 2050.
With those numbers, you can be sure that when we pick up the phone, send an e-mail or walk into a legislator’s office, we will be heard. With five minutes to spare, we can be involved in one of the most important discussions of the 21st Century – one that could decide the course of our health care for decades.
The fight for health care reform is not one that can be done by one organization, or one group of people. We all share responsibility to be part of the solution. Our elected officials must hear from us.
David Pacheco is an executive council member of AARP California
Related Articles:
Blacks, Hispanics Biggest Losers if Health Care Reform Flops
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User Comments
Christopher Hobe Morrison on Jul 26, 2009 at 12:07:17 said:
Of the two comments, one looks like a spam which should not have appeared. It is an advertisement and has little to do with the article. The other has nothing to say other than to call Obama a socialist and his health plan the nationalization of the health care sector. Oh, yes, it does say something. It denies that anybody has a right to health care. This is the best that anybody on the right can come up with in the health care debate, and explains why the drug companies and insurance companies are spending so much money on political bribes--- err contributions, and advertising.
This all leaves all the people without tons of money (mainly most of us) in the same position we have been in for so long, only in the last years it has been getting worse since the companies in charge of all this have abandoned all pretense at being interested in people's health and are now only interested in gaining the maximum of profits, so if you are not worth a lot of money to them you can find a quiet place to die. As far as Latinos in particular, Republicans have lost interest in them lately because they are a minority and they are only interested in middle-aged wealthy white males.
J Cir on Jul 26, 2009 at 07:31:42 said:
"At this crucial moment, we have the opportunity of a lifetime to fix our broken health care system. Obama has promised health reform before the end of the year, but we need to make sure that Congress follows through."
--David Pacheo
Translation: the author, like the socialist President Obama, wish to seize on the economic crisis and effectively create a massive tranfer of wealth in the form of ever expanding entitlements. Many of the recipients of these handouts either don't deserve them or want them. Those brandishing the number 47 million unisured always fail to acknowledge that many of those people are temporarily unemployed or young and healthy.
As Obama's nationalized reinvention of health care continues to plummet in favorability and erode his popularity, America's inherent dislike and distrust of big and liberty-crushing goverment is refreshing to see.
Although it rubs Obama raw, health care is not a right; rights are only those precious, god-given things that government cannot take away. King Obama intends to give health care to everyone...a larger and more grotesque example of big government more and more American's can't fathom.
susan t on Jul 25, 2009 at 15:35:14 said:
At 92 years of age, Quindino Quintiliani thought he had beat the odds, surviving into his 90s without having to confront a cancer diagnosis. Not quite. A bout with pneumonia in March led to a diagnosis of inoperable, metastatic lung cancer. His cardiologist requested consultation with Dr. Robert Nagourney, Medical Director of Rational Therapeutics, a developmental cancer program located in Long Beach.
“I must admit, I didn’t expect to be offering a 92-year old patient chemotherapy and expected instead to be providing information on supportive care and hospice,” said Dr. Nagourney. Yet this spry nonagenarian with a thick Italian accent and a twinkle in his eye urged Dr. Nagourney to “not give up on me.”
“We agreed that if I could identify a mild therapy with a good chance of helping, we’d begin treatment.” Nagourney said.
To accomplish this goal, Nagourney used his laboratory to study cancer cells isolated from fluid around Quindino’s lung, an approach shown to double the likelihood of response to chemotherapy in lung cancer (Proc. Amer. Soc Clin. Oncol., 2009). The lab results could not have been clearer with the combination of Carboplatin and Gemcitabine proving exactly right for Quindino’s cancer while virtually none of the other lung cancer treatments revealed activity. Treatment started immediately.
“My breathing improved, and I felt sure it was working but the doctor couldn’t prove that until the X-ray was repeated,” said Quindino. But prove improvement they did, for when the new scans were compared, the radiologist was so impressed that he personally called Dr. Nagourney to say that they showed marked “interval regression of the patient’s metastatic lung carcinoma,” This, despite very few of the side effects usually associated with chemotherapy.
“Every patient’s good outcome is a worth celebrating, but Quindino’s excellent response is particularly gratifying. Had we withheld therapy due to his age or used the off-the-shelf standard therapies, I doubt that Mr. Quintiliani would be alive today,” said Dr. Nagourney.
Noteworthy, Mr. Quintiliani has received all of his therapy as an outpatient and hasn’t required the costly supportive measures like growth factors so common in cancer therapy, making his care comparatively inexpensive.
“Despite his age, Mr. Quindino teaches us that even in an era of cost containment, good medical care can be highly cost-effective,” Dr. Nagourney said. Quindino and his grateful family are certainly in agreement.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the US, with more than 215,000 new cases and 161, 000 deaths for this diagnosis in 2008. Standard therapy provides responses in less than one-third of patients, often at significant toxicity and expense. Rational Therapeutics, is a pioneering cancer therapy program located in Long Beach that specializes in personalized cancer care based upon the laboratory analysis of each individual patient’s tumor. Lung cancer is one of their most active areas of research. More information is at www.rationaltherapeutics.com
susan t on Jul 25, 2009 at 15:31:01 said:
At 92 years of age, Quindino Quintiliani thought he had beat the odds, surviving into his 90s without having to confront a cancer diagnosis. Not quite. A bout with pneumonia in March led to a diagnosis of inoperable, metastatic lung cancer. His cardiologist requested consultation with Dr. Robert Nagourney, Medical Director of Rational Therapeutics, a developmental cancer program located in Long Beach.
-->“I must admit, I didn’t expect to be offering a 92-year old patient chemotherapy and expected instead to be providing information on supportive care and hospice,” said Dr. Nagourney. Yet this spry nonagenarian with a thick Italian accent and a twinkle in his eye urged Dr. Nagourney to “not give up on me.”
“We agreed that if I could identify a mild therapy with a good chance of helping, we’d begin treatment.” Nagourney said.
To accomplish this goal, Nagourney used his laboratory to study cancer cells isolated from fluid around Quindino’s lung, an approach shown to double the likelihood of response to chemotherapy in lung cancer (Proc. Amer. Soc Clin. Oncol., 2009). The lab results could not have been clearer with the combination of Carboplatin and Gemcitabine proving exactly right for Quindino’s cancer while virtually none of the other lung cancer treatments revealed activity. Treatment started immediately.
“My breathing improved, and I felt sure it was working but the doctor couldn’t prove that until the X-ray was repeated,” said Quindino. But prove improvement they did, for when the new scans were compared, the radiologist was so impressed that he personally called Dr. Nagourney to say that they showed marked “interval regression of the patient’s metastatic lung carcinoma,” This, despite very few of the side effects usually associated with chemotherapy.
“Every patient’s good outcome is a worth celebrating, but Quindino’s excellent response is particularly gratifying. Had we withheld therapy due to his age or used the off-the-shelf standard therapies, I doubt that Mr. Quintiliani would be alive today,” said Dr. Nagourney.
Noteworthy, Mr. Quintiliani has received all of his therapy as an outpatient and hasn’t required the costly supportive measures like growth factors so common in cancer therapy, making his care comparatively inexpensive.
“Despite his age, Mr. Quindino teaches us that even in an era of cost containment, good medical care can be highly cost-effective,” Dr. Nagourney said. Quindino and his grateful family are certainly in agreement.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the US, with more than 215,000 new cases and 161, 000 deaths for this diagnosis in 2008. Standard therapy provides responses in less than one-third of patients, often at significant toxicity and expense. Rational Therapeutics, is a pioneering cancer therapy program located in Long Beach that specializes in personalized cancer care based upon the laboratory analysis of each individual patient’s tumor. Lung cancer is one of their most active areas of research. More information is at www.rationaltherapeutics.com