The latest phase of Open Enrollment for the Healthcare Marketplace will wrap up on Jan. 31, 2017. As of last December, over 4 million people had selected plans using HealthCare.gov since Open Enrollment began November 1. This includes over 1.1 million new consumers and 2.9 million renewing their coverage. In order to reduce health disparities, it is critical to address inequities in programs, practices, and policies. Join our site, connect with others, and get involved. Latinos have been one of the groups who have benefited the most from the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Health Insurance Marketplace. Over 4 million have obtained health care coverage and have reduced their rate of uninsured individuals to historic lows. “Millions of Americans have ...
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University recently identified a “culturally sensitive” set of tools that can be applied by pediatricians to help them screen Latino patients for mental health symptoms. Anxiety, depression, and aggression are some of the mental health issues that plague many Latinos and often go undiagnosed and untreated. The tools, which are freely available, and take less than 10 minutes to use are in Spanish and can help assess a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems among Latino kids. The investigators from Johns Hopkins encourage primary care pediatricians to consider utilizing four mental health screening tools: he Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC)-17-question version, the PSC-35-question version, the pictorial PSC-35, and the Strengths and ...
Mental health is one of the most important issue in all of healthcare. Anxiety and depression are just two of the more common mental health issues that affect millions of people. In recent years, Latino mental health has become an issue focused on my health agencies across the country. A new study has found that certain policies may be exacerbating Latino mental health concerns American Latinos living in states with more “exclusionary” immigration policies report higher rates of “psychological distress” than those living in states with more liberal immigration laws. “Obviously, not all immigrants are Latinos, nor are all Latinos immigrants,” said a research team led by Mark Hatzenbuehler of Columbia University in the journal Social Science and Medicine. In order to ...
Many minorities, including Latinos, are disproportionately affected by diabetes. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shown that almost 13% of all Latinos have the disease compared to just over 9% of the overall U.S. population. Latinos are also more likely to experience complications from the disease and, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health, they have a higher death rate from diabetes, as well. However, having support from peers can help Latinos cope with and live with the disease. A study from the University of Missouri School of Medicine looked at how well interventions work in the Latino community when a person with diabetes gets support from someone who understands the disease. In ...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced over $50 million in funding for 75 health centers across 23 states. These community-based organizations offer “comprehensive, culturally competent, high-quality primary health care services.” “We expect this competitive New Access Point funding to provide health care to more than 240,000 additional patients,” said Dr. Mary Wakefield, Acting Deputy Secretary at HHS in a press release. “These new health center sites will contribute significantly to the health of families and communities across the nation.” In order to reduce health disparities, it is critical to address inequities in programs, practices, and policies. Join our site, connect with others, and get involved. The health ...
One of the main ways that scientists measure the overall health and well-being of a nation is by tracking the rate at which its citizens die and how long they are expected to live. For the first time in over 20 years, the U.S. has seen a drop in overall life expectancy. “This is a big deal,” said Philip Morgan, a demographer at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in an interview with NPR. “There’s not a better indicator of well-being than life expectancy. The fact that it is leveling off in the U.S. is a striking finding.” Latinos are the nation’s largest racial and ethnic minority group. As a population they are expected to grow from 1 in 6 people today to 1 in 4 by 2035 and 1 in 3 by 2060. As Latinos are becoming a growing “force” in all facets of life, ...
The city can now move forward with the taxing of sugary beverages as a ruling on Monday dismissed the American Beverage Association and other Pennsylvania food and beverage associations lawsuit in "its entirety", meaning there is no going back after January first when the tax is scheduled to take effect. Signed by Mayor Jim Kenney, the 1.5 cents per ounce soda tax is estimated to generate around $91million dollars annually and is to be used to fund universal pre-k, support community schools, revitalize parks and fund police body cameras. Judge Glazer dismissed the ruling against the tax, stating that the tax does not violate the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution nor does it conflict with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program as argued by opposers of the ...
Hawai'i is a place known for its beauty, but now it may be known for more than beauty as it strives for health and wellness with Kaiser Permanente Hawai'i who has awarded nearly $800,000 dollars towards supporting nonprofits that focus on behavioral health support, preventive screenings, and healthy eating. The commitment behind Kaiser's support is to reduce health disparities in Hawaii, where the Latino population (10.4%) saw a 165% growth since 1990 and continues to grow consistently, according to Hawaii News Now. Taking a stand to help all those in Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente is working in low-income communities to help improve access to healthy lunches in schools, vision and oral screenings, education, mental health and more. Over eight non-profits have received the funds and ...
The deadline to obtain health coverage by January 1 has been extended through December 19. Open Enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace is currently underway. On Friday, Dec. 16, President Barack Obama announced that more than 670,000 people signed up before the Dec. 15 deadline; due to this overwhelming response, the deadline has been extended. “Millions of Americans have already signed up for coverage and tens of thousands more are in the process of getting coverage today,” said Health Insurance Marketplace CEO Kevin Counihan. “As we did last year, because of extraordinary volume of consumers contacting our call center or visiting HealthCare.gov, we are extending the deadline to sign-up for January 1 coverage until 11:59pm PST December 19.” In order to ...
