The House Energy & Commerce Committee will be completing its mark-up of H.R. 3200, the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, tomorrow morning (Wednesday).  Congressman Deal (R-GA) has filed an amendment which would:

1.       Require legal immigrants to wait five years from their date of entry to the United States before they could receive subsidies in the health insurance exchange.; and

2.       Further require that all applicants for subsidies in the Exchange document their citizenship using Medicaid citizenship documentation.

CONTACT MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE ENERGY & COMMERCE COMMITTEE NOW TO OPPOSE THIS AMENDMENT!

Low-income legal immigrants deserve the same access to subsidies as citizens.   Legal immigrants pay federal, state, and local taxes just like citizens, and contribute to funding all of the health programs used by citizens.

Without access to subsidies, insurance will remain unaffordable for legal immigrants.   Any waiting period means years without preventive care and a family doctor, increasing the risk of not identifying and treating diseases such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension or cancer.

Costly verification or documentation requirements will divide our families and keep eligible Americans from receiving care.  We need to remove not add obstacles that will stand in the way of quality, affordable health care for everyone.

APIAHF is a member of the OMO Governing Body and OMO Health Data Task Force.

The magnitude of the debate is broad; Congress is asking us for specific strategies that respond to four topics: 1) the expansion of affordable insurance coverage that impacts favorably on Latinos; 2) the expansion of primary care services, integration of preventive medicine and recommended incentives to be responsive to the Latino patient; 3) how do we improve quality via the creation of culturally competent, CLAS, and Patient-Centered Medical Home primary care services; 4) how de we reform medical education to ensure the appropriate future workforce for achieving health care reform?

I invite you and your colleagues to join the “NHMA Hispanic Provider Community Forum on Health Care Reform” on our portal: www.hispanichealth.info to share your insights and recommendations for health care reform today.

We welcome you to join one or more of the following discussion groups:

1.      Expanding Affordable Insurance Coverage for Hispanics
2.      Expanding preventive medicine oriented primary care services responsive to the Latino patient
3.      Improving quality via the creation of culturally competent, CLAS and the Patient-Centered Medical Home primary care services
4.      Reforming medical education to ensure an appropriate future workforce for achieving health care reform

We invite you to join one or more of the four discussion groups by going to   http://www.hispanichealth.info/ , and clicking on “create new account” and following the instructions.

Should you have any problems registering or logging on, please call the help desk at (212)-992-8706.