Health Insurance Articles
How the Healthcare Debate is Affecting Hispanics
2009-08-18
Health insurance is a hot topic whether the topic is low cost health insurance or affordable health insurance. This has been brought about by President Barack Obama’s government healthcare policy versus private health insurance. If a primary government healthcare plan is implemented, it would banish the need for health insurance quotes as a government plan would be the only plan. Instead of affordable health insurance in the private sector as we know it today, health insurance would depreciate. Employers would opt for the cheaper plan – the government plan.
So how will this affect Hispanics? The culture of Hispanics, religion and health practices play a part in how Hispanics view healthcare and health insurance. Lighting of candles for the sick, visiting shrines, and prayer is integral in their religious practices. It is customary for Hispanics to look to family members regarding advice about illnesses. Hispanics wish to be pampered when ill and look to others for this as a sign of love and concern. Sometimes they look to a holistic leader, or curandero, to seek his help with Catholic and Pentecostal rituals.
Modesty is strong in both men and women and dictates what can be discussed with whom. For example, a man cannot discuss his wife’s private parts with his mother. Family interdependence is emphasized over individual independence. A wife will cut up her husband’s food, instead of the husband cutting up his own food.
According to Pew Hispanic Center, more than one-fourth of Hispanic adults in the U.S. lack a usual healthcare provider. Hispanics receive health information from media sources, radio, and television.
The 2007 Latino Health Survey finds Hispanic adult men, less educated, the young, and those with no health insurance to be the least likely to have a healthcare provider or doctor. The primary reason given for not having a healthcare provider is not healthcare cost or assimilation. It is this: they are seldom sick.
According to the U.S. National Long-term Care Survey, women are giving care to the elderly 80% of the time. These women spend more than 40 hours a week caring for these elderly family members while 90% of them also work outside the home. Hispanics from Mexico have lower morbidity and mortality in comparison to non-Hispanic Whites and native-born Hispanics. Department of Public Health Studies, UCLA, conducted a study that revealed that 17% of Hispanics from Mexico living here in the United States do not have health insurance.
The University of Texas at Austin’s Population Research Center found that Mexican Americans are likely to have the same life expectancy as non-Hispanic Whites, but that they will spend more of their lives in disability. Also, elderly Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States and are the least like to have adequate health insurance. The Hispanics need culturally welcoming nursing homes.
