Eric Moreno is a Content Curator with the Salud America! program at UT Health San Antonio. He specializes in covering the topics of health equity and family and social support. He holds a BA from the University of Texas at San Antonio and an MA from Gonzaga University.
The Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recently released the first Implementation Progress Report of the HHS Disparities Action Plan, which details the agency’s efforts to address disparities in health and healthcare among racial and ethnic minorities. Covering the study period from 2011-2014, the report addressing disparities in coverage and access to healthcare. The report also highlights HHS’ covers cultural competency of the workforce, advancing community-based approaches to promote health and wellness, and furthering research on racial and ethnic health disparities. The Implementation Progress Report addresses the HHS’ commitment to addressing and eliminating health disparities. The plan was first released in 2011 ...
Abriendo Puertas (Open Doors) is a program designed for parents of Latino children that teaches them how to prepare their children for preschool. Designed by former educator Sandra Gutierrez, the program educates parents on the public resources available to them. As part of the program, instructors share learning games that parents can use to teach their children basic skills as well as stress the importance of reading to their children. The lessons are all taught in Spanish. “It’s beneficial to promote language, whatever it may be,” said Gutierrez. The program was started due to noticeable gaps in the school readiness for reading. Data from the National Survey of Child Health found that Latino families were 16% less likely to read to their children age 5 and under. A ...
According to a report conducted by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, the majority of the nation’s Latinos believe that education is one of our country’s most important issues. Entitled “Latino Perspectives on K-12 Education & School Choice,” the report revealed a number of important discoveries, mainly that education was second only to the economy and jobs as the most important issue Americans currently face. Education was also more of an important issue to Latinos than immigration. Latinos surveyed covered a range of education topics, including charter schools, standardized testing, school vouchers, and educational spending. In terms of K-12 education, approximately 53% of the Latinos surveyed felt that it was heading in the “wrong direction,” compared ...
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to increase access to quality health care for everyone in the country, especially the Latino community. Now in its Open Enrollment phase (through January 31, 2016), the ACA has already seen the largest reduction in uninsured Americans in four decades. To date, 16.4 million have gained health care coverage. Last year, an estimated 80% of uninsured Latinos qualified for Medicaid, CHIP, or lower costs on monthly premiums through the Health Insurance Marketplace. It was estimated that 7 out of 10 who purchased insurance through the Marketplace found coverage for less than $100 a month. Over 910,000 Latino adults between the ages of 19 and 26 are now covered through their parents. Overall, 4.2 million Latinos (ages 18-64) gained health ...
According to the California Healthcare Foundation (CHCF), the state has a dire shortage of Latino nurses. A study found that the majority of nurses in the state are White or Asian, while 39% of the population is Latino and represent only 8% of the nursing pool. “Clearly we are lacking … [Latino] nurses,” said David Hayes-Bautista, Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA. “Having them in the workforce will … make for better patient care [and] better language communication.” In a population as diverse as California, where Latinos lack sufficient access to preventive care and experience higher rates of heart disease and shorter life expectancies than Whites. Financial support is a major barrier for many Latino students. Financial aid is ...
A new app by the company LowestMed has been launched that will allow Latinos to compare prescription medicine prices. The app, called MediBajo, is the first of its kind specifically designed for the Latino community. The app utilizes user-friendly mobile technology to compare prescription drug prices at local pharmacies. “Prescription drug prices vary and many people end up paying too much or skip their medications simply because of the lack of pricing transparency,” said LowestMed CEO Brad Bangerter. “This can be an even bigger problem if there is a language barrier. We created MediBajo specifically for the 55 million Hispanics in the U.S. to help ensure they can compare prices at local pharmacies and get the best discounts available by using an app tailored to their own ...
According to a report from the Utah Department of Health, the health of Utah’s Latinos has shown little improvement in the last five years. Latinos in the state continue to show higher levels of obesity, infant mortality, and other negative health measures. According to a report from the Utah Department of Health, the health of Utah’s Latinos has shown little improvement in the last five years. Latinos in the state continue to show higher levels of obesity, infant mortality, and other negative health measures. “We didn’t seem to improve a whole lot in some of these measures that we’ve been needing to improve,” said the report’s lead author and health program specialist at the Utah Department of Health, Jake Fitisemanu. “Being an optimistic person and seeing the great ...
A report published by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research determined that health disparities persist for California’s 9.8 million adult Latinos. The rates of obesity, poor health, food insecurity and lack of insurance are higher than the state’s average. The Center used the data from the 2012-2013 California Health Interview Survey. An estimated 2.7 million Latinos are estimated to be food insecure. The data revealed large gaps in the between Latino groups in that nearly 40% of Salvadorans, as an example reported fair or poor health compared to 12.8% of South Americans and 30.8% of Latinos overall. Non-U.S. born Mexican adults and Salvadorans were shown to have the most difficulty in reliably obtaining food. Among Latino groups, South Americans have the lowest ...
A study by Emory University has found that Latinos are more likely to say that doctors are unconcerned about their health and do not see them as equals. The study, entitled “Disaggregating Ethnoracial Disparities in Physician Trust,” found that individuals of a particular race (such as Latinos) tend to have a similar point of view on physician trust. The study also found that this issue of trust had nothing to do with education level, income, or marital status. U.S. Latinos are less likely than whites to trust the interpersonal competence, technical judgment, and obligation to act ethically towards the best interest of the patient of their doctors. “By more closely measuring differences in physicians trust, we find key differences in how people in how people view their ...
