Making Health Care Fair for One and All

We in the Latino community are very pleased that politicians are awakening to the fact that ours is a constituency worth cultivating. Latinos are the fastest-growing population group in America and we believe our interests are America’s interests. If members of Congress and the growing list of presidential hopefuls truly want to meet the Latino community’s most pressing need, the issue they will deal with immediately is health care. Here in California, the mother lode of electoral votes and the state that could easily decide which political party will control Congress and the White House after 2000, Latinos are getting the shortest end of the health care stick.

The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research organization based in New York, recently found that only 44% of Latinos get health insurance through their employers, compared to 69% of whites and 52% of blacks. The study also found that 37%--more than one out of three--of full-time Latino workers don’t have health insurance, compared to 20% of blacks and 12% of whites.

It’s worse here in California. The State of Health Insurance in California 1998 Report, conducted by the University of California, had findings similar to the Commonwealth Fund’s. The study, which was released in January, also found that 38% of nonelderly Latinos in California--3.4 million people--did not have health insurance in 1997. These conclusions are consistent with the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau showing Latinos as the ethnic group with the largest portion of uninsured individuals nationwide.

What is the answer? We propose a solution that deserves overwhelming bipartisan support: a $3,000 tax credit for workers and their families who do not receive health insurance through their employers. Employees could use the credit to buy insurance at work or on the retail market.

Such a policy would promote health care equity by providing benefits to low- and middle-income uninsured workers. It would permit millions of Latinos--and many others who share our predicament--to have access to preventive and routine health care. And, it would extend the tax benefit currently enjoyed by large employers and their employees to all workers.

Such a tax credit would reduce health care costs by reducing use of emergency and acute care. Best of all, our proposal abides by the doctor’s creed to “first, do no harm.” It would not disrupt or discourage voluntary participation by employers currently providing employment-based health insurance to their workers, and it would not drive up costs forcing those currently insured to drop their coverage.

Politically, this is a bipartisan approach. Republicans are fond of tax credits, as they proved with their recent $500-per-child tax credit for families with children. Democrats, as evidenced by President Clinton’s numerous tax credit proposals, are also supportive of such policies. In fact, it was House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt who proposed a similar idea in a 1980 bill.

Latinos believe America has the best health care system in the world, but we want to see more of our community--as well as many other Americans--have access to it. We believe that can be done by providing a tax credit to those who are now excluded from the system. We reject the notion that the U.S. must move toward a system of socialized medicine, as that has failed elsewhere. We urge the leaders of both parties to embrace our “fair care” proposal and move forward with it now.