Black, and Asian Islander and National Groups Support Health Care their Communities

Congressional Tricaucus and national minority medical and nursing leaders are meeting in Washington, DC tomorrow, at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room B-339 from 5:00 - 7:00 pm, to urge Congress to pass health care reform legislation with affordable insurance and a public option that target their communities.

Minority doctors and nurses are underrepresented in the health care system, but, they tend to provide more care, than the non-minority doctors and nurses, in poor areas of the country and know first-hand, the challenges of racial/ethnic health care disparities in the U.S.

"Minority doctors and nurses join the Tricaucus to tell President Obama to include a national strategy to build minority health care," according to Dr. Elena Rios, president of the National Hispanic Medical Association, a Washington, DC based advocacy group, "We have been advocating to Congress and White House staff to support prevention without penalties on premiums for the poor, to eliminate the 5 year ban on health care for legal immigrants, to include the Office of Minority Health to target health care to minority families so they suffer less from heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity and HIV/AIDS."

Speakers include Congressman Raul Grijalva, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Health Task Force, Congresswoman Donna Christensen, chair, Congressional Black Caucus Health Committee, Congressman Mike Honda, chair, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Lucille Perez, MD, former president, National Medical Association, Velma Henderson, RN, National Black Nurses Association, Norma Martinez Rogers, PhD, president, National Association of Hispanic Nurses, Melvina McCabe, MD, president, Association of American Indian Physicians, Deanna Jang, policy director, Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Fredette West, chair, Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Coalition, and Elena Rios, MD, president & CEO, National Hispanic Medical Association. The briefing is being funded by Wyeth.

Health reform, if passed into law, will support new programs to schools and worksites for nutrition and physical exercise and new jobs such as community health workers and translators; expand recruitment of minority students into health professions careers; mandate data collection of race/ethnicity and language and quality measures about providers' cultural competence; and support government research that compares effectiveness of treatments.