Health Advocacy
Hispanic Federation advocates for health policies that break down disparities in Latino communities and increase access to healthcare and other resources. Right now, HF is leading a robust advocacy effort in New York because there are over 154,000 uninsured, low-income New Yorkers who are ineligible for health coverage because of their immigration status. HF is advocating for New York State to amend the Federal 1332 waiver application to include all low-income New Yorkers regardless of immigration status.
HF is also advocating for policies that:
- Expand Hospital Financial Assistance eligibility to individuals making up to 600 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL);
- Ban Hospitals from suing patients making under 600 percent FPL for medical debt;
- Incorporate time-limited debt repayment plans so patients who make an agreed upon number of payments don’t have to spend their lives in debt;
- Ban cost-sharing for insulin for enrollees in State-regulated health insurance plans;
- Improve affordability of Marketplace plans via premium assistance/ cost-sharing subsidies;
- And adopt Kids Coverage to ensure children up to age 6 remain continuously covered in Medicaid or Child Health Plus.
For more information about our health advocacy work, contact us below.
Explore HF’s Policy and Advocacy Work
In addition to our health advocacy work, HF leads broader policy and advocacy work at all levels of government that aims to advance Latino opportunity and equity across the country by focusing on three pillars: civil rights, justice, and equity and empowerment.
Health Research
HF’s Asthma Research Project
New Haven, Connecticut has a 25% poverty rate and the highest rates for asthma hospitalizations, with 74.6 hospitalization events per 10,000 people. Highest-risk communities also coincide with Hispanic- and African American/Black- dense neighborhoods, including but not limited to Dixwell, Fair Haven, Hill North, Newhallville, West River, and Dwight where in 2015, asthma rates averaged 23% in comparison to 14% of Connecticut overall.
Hispanic Federation is working with Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital to increase ongoing medical care for school-aged children with asthma and decrease hospitalizations and school absenteeism. This pilot project uses the Community Health Worker model alongside a Clinical Pathway system to increase asthma related knowledge and access to care, and to reduce asthma related emergencies. Data collected will be used to analyze, evaluate and determine best practices.
All of Us Research Program
Hispanic Federation has teamed up with the All of Us Research Program from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and The National Alliance for Hispanic Health. All of Us is a national effort that aims to build the largest most diverse database of health information of its kind that researchers can use to study health and illness.
We want to support researchers in efforts to understand how different genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors impact health and disease. With this information, researchers can look to improve the ways to diagnose, prevent, and treat health conditions. This could lead to improved health for generations to come and one day uncover paths toward delivering precision medicine – or individualized prevention– for all of us.
