|
Latino Health: California's Challenge - by Robert A. Beltran, MD, MBA
Although many improvements in the health of Americans have taken place in recent years, substantial differences still exist between racial and ethnic groups with regard to health status, health insurance and access to care. Such compelling evidence of this exists that in 1998 President Clinton put forth an initiative, “Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health.” The goal of this initiative is to eliminate disparities in infant mortality, cancer screening and management, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV infections/AIDS and immunizations by the year 2010.
The greatest challenges facing health care as we enter the 21st Century are measuring, managing and monitoring the multi-ethnocultural health care marketplace. The challenges are complex, the only certainty being constant change. Our prosperity rests on the collective will and ability to navigate the terrain of ethno-cultural diversity by creating strong intergroup collaborations, allowing all to participate, learn and thrive.
Nowhere in the United States are the racial and ethnic disparities in health status and care more sharply drawn than in Southern California. Demographic changes that are anticipated over the next decade highlight the importance of addressing these disparities now. California’s future health as a whole will be influenced substantially by our success in improving the health of racial and ethnic minority-majorities.
Leading this demographic change in racial and ethnic minority-majorities will be Latinos (or Hispanics, which is primarily, but not exclusively, a governmental term). Latinos are projected to become the largest ethnic minority group in the nation as well as in California by 2005. They are a diverse group with cultural heritages from a number of different countries-65% from Mexico, 14% from Central and South America, 10% from Puerto Rico, 5% from Cuba and 6% from other Spanish-speaking countries.
Latinos comprise California’s youngest and largest ethnic population. Their health is affected by several factors in addition to traditional health predictors such as inheritance and infectious disease trends. These factors include limited access to health care services, lack of health insurance, acculturation problems and immigration trends. For example, Latinos currently represent 40% of the uninsured in California. Despite these limitations, the health characteristics of Latinos are favorable in that they are mainly young with an average age of 27 years, their participation in the labor force is high, their utilization of public assistance is low, and their family orientation is strong. These positive Latino health trends along with others represent unique opportunities to construct a cost-effective health care system that can increase coverage of and participation by Latinos.
In fact, the Latino health model-which stresses family and diet, religion, work and culture-may be worth emulating. Evidence suggests that as Latinos age, they will live longer, have fewer hospitalizations, and suffer less heart disease, cancer and stroke. This has economic benefits for Medicare and Social Security.
Despite these favorable trends in Latino health, there exist some shadows. Latinos remain the ethnocultural group with the highest high school dropout rate and the lowest enrollment in colleges and universities. Unfortunately, even when they attain higher educational status and achieve success, Latinos often encounter wage disparities compared with their Anglo counterparts.
An issue that has recently gained attention in California is the small number of Latino physicians. They represent only 4.8% of the California physician workforce, although Latinos statewide represent nearly 30% of the population. In terms of real numbers, approximately 3,500 Latino physicians are licensed in California. Clearly, sharing a culture and a language with a physician can be highly beneficial to a patient, and this further emphasizes the need to increase the number of Latinos entering the medical profession.
It is against this background of Latino health that the California Latino Medical Association has been formed. Previously two separate organizations, the California Hispanic-American Medical Association and the Chicano-Latino Medical Association of California, both had enjoyed some success yet were hampered by lack of a united and focused direction.
Thus, a group of concerned Latino physicians from both organizations, led by Juan Villagomez, MD, decided to form a single, united organization that could help government, policy makers and health care experts better understand and deal with the challenges of the fastest growing minority in California. The new organization can also serve as a resource of experience and expertise to begin to address the health care needs of the Latino community. The challenges and dreams of the California Latino Medical Association are embodied in its mission statement: “…to be a catalyst for advocacy on behalf of the Latino community and Latino physicians through collaborative efforts in the legislative process, the health care market, institutions of higher learning, research and related health care fields.”
The Governing Board, Officers and Board of Directors of the California Latino Medical Association welcome Medicine of the Americas, a new and important medical journal, into the world of medicine. We thank the editors and publisher for affording Latino physicians the opportunity to create Latino Health as a standing column in the journal.
We believe that this opportunity to initiate a discourse with other ethnocultural groups that participate in the journal can mean only one thing: As the many voices in our land are given audience, a greater appreciation, understanding, and respect for the breadth and depth of humanity becomes the light that leads us out of darkness.
------------------
Robert Beltran, MD, MBA, a general surgeon, is Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board of the California Latino Medical Association.
info@MedicineoftheAmericas.org
Copyright 2000
The Society for the Study of Multicultural Medicine
Would you like to write a featured article?
|
|
|
See more of our latest featured articles:
|
