[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 167 (Tuesday, November 18, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H11365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MINORITY HEALTH CARE DISPARITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 2\1/2\ minutes.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the current health 
disparities as they relate to minority health care. More importantly, I 
want to talk about the solution, the Health Care Equality and 
Accountability Act.
  My district, alone, of Santa Clara County, California, is extremely 
diverse. Mr. Speaker, 30 percent of my community are Asian Americans 
and Pacific Islanders, 17 percent are Latinos, and 34 percent are 
foreign born, 43 percent speak a language other than English.
  Despite the increasing diversity of our Nation, our health care 
system is not meeting the needs of our community, and our racial and 
ethnic minorities are too often denied the high-quality health care 
that most Americans receive.
  According to the 2000 census data, the number of individuals who 
speak a language other than English at home has reached almost 45 
million, and 19.5 million speak English less than very well, an 
increase of 40 percent from 1990.
  There are two important things about our communities: number one, 
this bill and the solution codifies existing standards for culturally 
and linguistically appropriate health care, authorizes a new center in 
the Office of Minority Health to assist in cultural and language 
services, and increases Federal reimbursements for these services.
  Another area is data collection. Data is a crosscutting issue. Lack 
of data impacts our understanding of the health problems in our 
communities as well as the problems in access and quality. Adequate 
data collection continues to be a challenge for APAs. Though often 
mistaken to be a homogenous group, the Asian Pacific group encompasses 
49 ethnicities speaking over 100 languages.
  Aggregating such a large and diverse group makes it difficult to 
understand the unique problems faced by the individual ethnicity it 
encompasses.
  So what do we need to do? We need to be able to provide health 
insurance coverage; increase workforce diversity; reduce disease 
complications; provide cultural and linguistic services; attain quality 
data; strengthen health institutions to all minorities, Asian and 
Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, 
Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiians.
  Mr. Speaker, in solidarity with the Democratic leadership and 
minority caucuses, we call on our colleagues and the Chief Executive in 
the White House to help enact the solution for minority populations 
across this great Nation, the Health Care Equality and Accountability 
Act.

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