The latest news relating to the political world as it impacts the US Latino community.
A recent poll of Latinos in Colorado revealed that over half of Latinos —54 percent—don’t know the key aspects of the Affordable Care Act, encouraging initiatives to educate Latinos of the new law. “At this point, information is relatively low but the desire to be engaged in the process is very high,” said Dr. Gabriel [...]
Mayra Alvarez, Director of Public Health Policy in the Office of Health Reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recently wrote an op-ed for NBC Latino encouraging her younger sister Alejandra and others to register for the Health Insurance Marketplace, which opens in October 2013. The Marketplace is one of the many important provisions of [...]
Puerto Rican doctors and nurses are increasingly migrating from the island to the mainland U.S. seeking higher salaries and improved reimbursement from insurers. According to the island’s Medical Licensing and Studies board, the number of doctors in Puerto Rico has dropped about 13% with the major losses being in primary care physicians and specialists. “Professionals [...]
Voces Verdes, an independent, non-partisan organization of Latino leaders advocating for the environment, has long taken a stance against the negative health impact that pollution has on Hispanic communities. Earlier this month, Voces Verdes and partners took their concerns about harmful pollutants to the White House, asking for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama [...]
Are you familiar with superfoods? A story in The Guardian this week highlighted an issue that has been popping up in recent years: our “superfoods” are the regular foods of communities in other places. One case in example is quinoa from Bolivia—and how with our increased consumption, there is a negative impact on the communities that produce it. [...]
Latinos are less likely to receive the flu vaccine when compared to other ethnic groups, a fact influenced by limited access to medical care, revealed Eduardo Azziz-Baumgartner, a medical epidemiologist with the Influenza Division of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in an ABC News report. The lack of inoculations is particularly concerning, he added, because Latinos [...]
According to a report by Pew Research, both immigrant and native-born Latinos experienced steeper birthrate declines from 2007 to 2010 than other groups, including non-Latino whites, blacks, and Asians. The report details that in 2011, the overall American birthrate hit a record low, with 63 births per 1000 women ages 15 to 44. The decline [...]
A recent report from the United Health Foundation revealed that health concerns around obesity and diabetes continue to rise within the Latino community, affecting 31% of Latinos in the U.S. The rate at which obesity and diabetes affects the Latino community is almost commensurate with the rate for the general population in the country, which [...]
Debates of the upcoming fiscal cliff are causing many politicians to question what the right path would be for Latino families, acknowledging that no decision is likely to come easy. The fiscal cliff is described by NBC Latino as the time at the end of this month where a series of tax cuts, part of [...]
On December 4, 2012 Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa officially joined as a member of the steering committee for The Campaign to Fix the Debt. The Campaign to Fix the Debt is a bipartisan coalition composed of over 310,000 individuals in 17 states around the country. Fix the Debt’s coalition of members are a diverse [...]
