Health equity is where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to live their healthiest life possible. But health inequity remains. Now the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening historical inequities, and disproportionately affecting and killing Latinos and other people of color. So what can we do? We need both immediate focus to ease the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on Latinos and people of color, as well as long-term strides to address underlying inequities that are aggravated during this time. It won't be easy, or fast. But here's few ways to push for health equity.
1. Understand the Need for Heath Equity During COVID-19 and After
Where you live matters for your health. Even before COVID-19, inequitable city planning, historic discriminatory practices like ...
With the rise of COVID-19, our team at Salud America! is digitally curating content about what the coronavirus pandemic means for Latino health equity. We want to ensure Latinos get an equitable share of culturally relevant information. You can do your part! Share our Latino COVID-19 Vaccine "Change of Heart" Bilingual Storytelling Campaign in English or Spanish. We hope to move Latinos from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine confidence through telling stories of real Latinos who ended up getting the vaccine! Share our "Juntos, We Can Stop COVID-19" bilingual campaign to stop the spread! Share our infographic on 8 ways coronavirus impacts Latinos (English | Spanish).
Follow our content that has increased exposure to Latino health equity amid the pandemic, according to a ...
As the fate of the Affordable Care Act currently hangs in the balance and won't be decided until at least 2021, the amount of people with no health insurance coverage continues to rise. Latinos especially lack health coverage, which jeopardizes their health. "Going without coverage can have serious health consequences for the uninsured because they receive less preventive care; and delayed care often results in serious illness or other health problems," according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. "The financial consequences of not having insurance [can also lead] to difficulties paying medical bills and higher rates of medical debt among the uninsured."
What's the Fate of the Affordable Care Act?
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, took effect in 2010. The U.S. Supreme ...
Latino children are less likely to have their vision tested compared to their peers. From 2016 to 2017, only 58.6% of Latino children ages 3 to 5 had taken a vision test from a health professional, according to new CDC data. "Childhood vision screenings may provide early detection of vision disorders and opportunities for subsequent treatment," the authors say.
Latino Eye Health Risk Factors
In addition to Latino disparities, screening rates also were affected by differences in socioeconomic status, parental education, and healthcare access: Children living in families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level were about 10% less likely to have their vision tested.
Children whose parents had the equivalent of a high school diploma or less were almost 20% less ...
The proportion of Americans with no health insurance coverage increased for the first time in a decade, even as poverty is declining, according to new census data. In 2018, 27.5 million Americans did not have health insurance, an increase of 1.9 million people from the 2017. The rate of Americans lacking coverage rose from 7.9 to 8.5 percent of the population. The percentage of uninsured children increased by 0.6 percentage points between 2017 and 2018, to 5.5%. Minorities shouldered higher disparities. Latino kids saw the sharpest rise in uninsured rates compared to other races, from 7.7% uninsured to 8.7%. This, even as the poverty rate fell last year to its lowest level since 2001. The decline in poverty and increase in uninsured people seems to "reverse the trend ...
The Trump Administration has announced its final decision regarding the public charge rule, which is set to take effect Oct. 15, 2019. This new regulation changes the policies used to decide whether the officials can deny an individual's citizenship application or modifications to their citizenship status if they are determined likely to become a public charge, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The changes could considerably reduce the number of legal immigrants permitted to enter and stay in the U.S. — by making it easier to reject green card and visa applications. The new rule is bad news for public health, according to Mark Del Monte, CEO and Interim Executive Vice President of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "[We] strongly opposes the final rule issued ...
The number of U.S. kids without health insurance is rising for the first time in 10 years. Texas has the highest number of children without health insurance in America, according to a new report by Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The report found that more than 1 in 5 uninsured kids in the U.S. live in Texas, which is 835,000 as of 2017. From 2016 to 2017, Texas saw an increase of 83,000 uninsured kids. This is bad news for Latinos. Latinos, set to be the largest racial/ethnic population in Texas by 2022, are already the most uninsured U.S. group.
Latino Kids and the Report
This is the second-straight year Texas has had the nation's highest rate of uninsured children. There are many reasons for this, experts say. First, Texas has a greater ...
As the U.S. Latino population continues to grow so does the need for quality health care services. Yet many Latinos remain uninsured and face barriers to care like poverty, and a lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Latino children who are chronically ill or who have special needs are especially vulnerable due having the lowest rates of insurance coverage when compared to other minority kids. Despite these challenges, every child deserves the best quality of healthcare services available. For children who are chronically ill, this may take the form of a child life specialist, who can provide evidence-based therapeutic play and therapy to a child and also help establish trust with families. Let’s use #SaludTues on March 20, 2018, to chat about ways to ...
Discrimination. Micro-aggressions. Going back to college with kids. With a mother who overcame these hurdles as an immigrant to the U.S. from Honduras, Alejandra Mendez learned resilience. Now Mendez always looks for opportunities for success, rather than possible barriers. Her optimism has enabled her to help people similar to her mother, conducting research on the impact of racial discrimination, and volunteering to help uninsured clinic patients. Mendez recently earned her master’s degree in public health in health behavior and health education from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Under the guidance of her preceptor, Mendez conducted research on how racial discrimination affects health throughout the life course and adverse birth outcomes. Prior to her ...
