From The Hill‘s Congress Blog:
By Jennifer Ng’andu
Deputy Director of the Health Policy Project, NCLR
09/26/11 11:53 AM ET
There was a bright spot in the U.S. Census data released this week. While nearly a million more Latinos are wrestling with the ills of poverty, uninsurance has gone down in the Latino community. The improvements are slight, but many assumed that even small gains couldn’t be possible, as record numbers of Hispanics grapple with the challenges of high unemployment rates, declining incomes, and smaller household budgets.
The small improvements are due in large part to the role that public health insurance programs, like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), play in the households of Latinos and other Americans. There is, however, a serious concern on the horizon. Come Christmastime, the recently appointed congressional Super Committee will design a federal budget plan hoping to steer the U.S. out of debt. NCLR (National Council of La Raza) and numerous other civil rights groups fear that this conversation will be mired in politics about cutting spending for “less popular programs,” like Medicaid, regardless of the very real need that they serve. (more…)
Filed under: immigrant community | Tagged: CHIP, health insurance, Hispanic, Latinos, Medicaid, Super Committee | Leave a Comment »
