[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 20668]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO LA CLINICA DE LA RAZA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 27, 2006

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my esteemed colleague, 
Barbara Lee, to pay tribute to La Clinica de La Raza on its 35th 
anniversary of providing exemplary health care to the East Bay 
communities of Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties in Northern 
California.
  The mission of La Clinica de La Raza is to improve the quality of 
life of the diverse communities they serve by providing culturally 
appropriate, high quality, accessible health care for all.
  Before La Clinica de La Raza was established, low-income residents in 
the East Bay of Northern California had few options available to them 
for affordable health care. As a result, many were forced to go to 
hospital emergency rooms for problems that could have been avoided with 
preventive care. In response to this need for primary care services, a 
group of concerned health practitioners, community activists and 
students came together in 1971 to establish a multiservice clinic, in 
Oakland, California, based on the expressed needs of the community.
  La Clinica offers low cost quality health care services for 
multilingual and multicultural populations at 22 locations in three 
counties in northern California. The majority of La Clinica's patients 
earn far below the Federal poverty level and most lack private health 
insurance.
  La Clinica's comprehensive services include pediatrics, chronic 
disease management, family medicine, health education, women's health 
care, adolescent services, school-based clinics, mental health 
services, dental and vision care, and tattoo removal as well as 
pharmacy, laboratory and x-ray services. To most effectively serve the 
diverse community, La Clinica's health practitioners come from the 
cultures and communities of the patients they serve. The practitioners 
speak a myriad of languages fluently including Spanish, English, 
Chinese, Hindi, Arabic and Amharic. More than 72 percent of La 
Clinica's patients require services in their native languages.
  Since its founding in 1971, La Clinica has served hundred of 
thousands of individuals with a variety of health care services. 
Infants, children, expectant mothers, teens, seniors and families have 
benefited from these multi-service clinics.
  The number of people needing La Clinica's services continues to grow. 
The organization saw a 68 percent increase in patients from 1998-2004. 
In 2005 alone, La Clinica provided more than 175,000 patient visits. 
More than half of these visits were for children and adolescents. Since 
1990, La Clinica grew from 8 to 22 health care sites. One of these 
sites is scheduled for expansion in 2007 and is expected to double in 
operational capacity.
  Congresswoman Lee and I salute La Clinica de La Raza's remarkable 
past, accomplishments and vision for the future.

                          ____________________