Remarks by Mr. Ayaz Ahmed, Director of Health Services with the South Asian Council for Social Services (http://www.sacssny.org/).
November 17, 2009, New York City. As the health care debate heats up in the Senate, immigrant community groups and health care advocates are gearing up to push for the strongest possible health care reform bill and educating their communities about whats at stake for immigrants and all Americans in this national debate.
To really work, health care reform must extend affordable coverage to as many people as possible, including immigrants. Proposals excluding immigrants only seek to divide our nation and undermine reform—they must be rejected, said Ms. Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. Legal immigrants, who pay the exact same taxes as other Americans, should have the same access to affordability credits and public insurance programs. And its absurd to prohibit undocumented immigrants from using their own money to buy coverage at full price through the proposed health exchange. Congress and the president must stand firm and resist acquiescing to counterproductive measures aimed at immigrants.
The point of health reform is to make health care more accessible, not less accessible. We need a system that treats immigrants fairly and takes into account the contributions made by all people who live here. We must not play politics with the lives of real people, said Theo Oshiro, director of health advocacy with Make the Road New York.
The participants of todays press briefing—all members of the NYICs Health Access and Advocacy Collaborative, a group of health advocates from nine community-based organizations in New York City and Long Island—said the historic health reform bill passed by the House of Representatives on November 7th advances many of their goals. It would make health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans, contain skyrocketing health care costs, reduce health disparities, and improve health outcomes. The House bill was not without major flaws, however, and advocates said they hoped to address these shortcomings in the Senate version.
One of the missed opportunities of the House bill is that it does not restore federal Medicaid eligibility for recently-arrived lawful permanent residents, who are barred from the program during their first five years in the country, said Lana Khrapunskaya, an intake coordinator and case worker with the community group Shorefront YMYWHA of Brighton-Manhattan Beach. No one should be forced to wait for health care, especially if their tax dollars are helping to support the program. Fortunately, here in New York State, our public health insurance program doesnt discriminate against taxpaying permanent residents whove been here less than five years—its time for the federal government to follow suit.
Advocates also expressed concern about proposals in the House bill that would add unnecessary citizenship documentation and verification requirements for health programs. Clients already have to prove their citizenship or immigration status when applying for federal programs such as Medicaid. Those same systems can be used to verify eligibility for the proposed federal tax credits that will help make insurance more affordable. Why reinvent the wheel and waste taxpayers money to create a new verification process when one already exists? asked Mr. Ayaz Ahmed, director of health services with the South Asian Council for Social Services.
Like most Americans, Asian-Pacific Americans feel the pain of our broken health care system and are struggling to keep up with out-of-control medical costs, said Noilyn Abesamis-Mendoza, manager of health policy with the Coalition for Asian-American Children and Families. We are now looking to the Senate to continue the tremendous work of the House in order to make health reform a reality this year. The rising cost of health care is hurting too many families and forcing too many businesses to cut or drop benefits. We cannot waste any more time.
Participants said they would continue to vigorously advocate for a bill that offers subsidies to citizens and legal immigrants alike to make insurance more affordable, allows access to the exchange for anyone who wants to buy insurance with his or her own money, does not create more barriers to health care in the form of costly and unnecessary verification measures, and protects the safety-net health care system so that individuals who remain uninsured can get the health care they need.
For more information, please visit - www.thenyic.org
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