[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 24 (Thursday, March 7, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S1671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE VIRGINIA GARCIA MEMORIAL HEALTH CENTER

  Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Madam President, today I rise today to give 
tribute to some of the health care heroes in my home State of Oregon. 
They are the hard-working people who staff the Virginia Garcia Memorial 
Health Center in Cornelius, OR.
  Virginia Garcia was a 6-year-old girl who died from a treatable 
infection in the 1970s. She died, not because she lacked health care, 
but because no one spoke to her family in the only language they knew--
Spanish.
  Access to health care involves more than insurance. Barriers to 
access continue to exist even when financial problems to health care 
are removed. Disparities in health care and health outcomes reflect 
these barriers.
  For example, Latinos are twice as likely as White Americans to have 
diabetes, and twice as likely to have cervical cancer. They also trail 
other ethnic groups in childhood immunizations and health insurance 
coverage.
  The Virginia Garcia Clinic does a wonderful job at bridging the large 
gap between access to coverage and access to care. The clinic serves 
nearly 8,000 patients a year, 80 percent of whom are Spanish speaking, 
and 90 percent of whom are below the poverty level. Patients in the 
clinic pay for their services on a sliding scale, sometimes as low as 
$5 per visit.
  Access to high quality, affordable, and culturally accessible care 
has saved many lives, and improved the quality of lives of many others. 
I have two true stories to relate to you today, though I really don't 
need to use their names, because they represent thousands of people 
across my home State. I will refer to them just as people in need of 
health care.
  One woman who has benefitted from the good works of the Virginia 
Garcia Clinic came to the clinic after moving to the U.S. from Mexico. 
She had suffered from breast cancer, and underwent a mastectomy and a 
long, expensive treatment of chemotherapy that had bankrupted her 
family. To pay for this treatment, they lost their home.
  She turned to the Virginia Garcia Health Center for help. She needed 
very expensive medication, and the clinic managed to provide it to her. 
To make matters worse, she also had diabetes and other complicated 
health problems. Yet the Virginia Garcia Clinic manages her care and 
arranges for the specialty care that she requires. Without a safety net 
clinic such as the Virginia Garcia Clinic, she would very likely not 
get the care she needs to stay healthy for her children and family.
  The staff at the clinic have also told me about a farm worker who 
came to the Virginia Garcia Clinic for an urgent care visit about a 
rash on his arm. During the exam, the nurse practitioner asked about a 
lump she noticed on his neck. He hadn't been concerned about it, but 
the staff at the Virginia Garcia Clinic persisted until he agreed to 
have a biopsy. The lump turned out to be lymphoma, so the Virginia 
Garcia Clinic arranged for his chemotherapy at the Oregon Health and 
Sciences University, where he was treated successfully.
  Without a migrant community health center such as Virginia Garcia to 
provide outreach, the outcome of this story would likely not have been 
so positive.
  Spending time at the Virginia Garcia Clinic, I have met with people 
with stories such as these and whose lives would have changed for the 
worse without the efforts of the hard-working and dedicated staff.
  Truly, these people, these staff workers are health care heroes, and 
we desperately need them in our quest to ensure that every person in 
this country has access to health care.
  So today, I salute the work and the workers of the Virginia Garcia 
Clinic, true heroes in the State of Oregon.

                          ____________________