Hello everyone, our names are Alexiah Azad and Manaal Syed. We are in our final year of the biomedical pathway at our high school and are doing a capstone project on awareness towards the healthcare disparities that the Latino community faces. In America, there is a huge gap in access to healthcare for the Latino community specifically. In the Central Valley alone, it is 46% Latino, a very big percentage of people who will need to access health care.  Latinos typically have a harder time than other racial/ethnic groups in accessing healthcare mainly due to low insurance rates and a language barrier between patients of Latino origin and healthcare workers. In fact, Latinos have the highest rates of no healthcare insurance compared to other ethnic groups. Other sources of these disparities are the wage gap, education gap, and job instability as well in the community. Latinos face unequal levels of poverty and due to this huge wealth gap, they are unable to attain a proper education which prevents them from getting stable jobs leading to them being unable to access proper healthcare. These jobs typically do not provide insurance, a proper salary, and are not flexible with sick days which result in Latinos delaying their health just so they can get their salary.

One solution that could help alleviate this issue is to implement programs that will increase funding for more medical related programs in high schools, funding for more Latino healthcare workers, and funding for more translators in the ER. These programs would be beneficial to healing these disparities because these programs will help to produce more opportunities for Latinos to join the medical field. Evidence has shown that Latinos are an underrepresented group in the medical field. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, in 2019 "Among active physicians, 56.2% identified as White, 17.1% identified as Asian, 5.8% identified as Hispanic, and 5.0% identified as Black or African American."(AAMC, 2019). This evidence shows that Latinos are not as represented as they should be in the medical field. If more Latino healthcare workers join the medical field, then Latino patients will be more comfortable in accessing the care they need. There is a huge education gap that prevents Latinos from entering the medical fields. If these programs for Latino students are created, then they may receive the guidance and help needed to join the medical workforce. Another issue that these programs will help to reduce is the language barrier. Language barriers make it difficult for Latinos to know how they can access health care options and insurance. If we have more translators in the ER and more Latino healthcare workers then Latinos understanding of healthcare and insurance will be increased

We believe that every group deserves the right to high quality healthcare which is why we want you to sign the petition to advocate for Representative Jerry McNerny and Eric Swallwell to help implement these programs and to reduce the healthcare disparities seen in the Latino community. Please sign this petition to create a change that would benefit many. Thank you so much and we really appreciate it.

Here is our letter to Representative Jerry McNerny and Representive Eric Swallwell:

Link For Letter

If you want to get some more information on this topic the links down below can help you out:

Infographic Link

Brochure Link

Citations:

(2019, July 1).Diversity In Medicine:Facts And Figures 2019.Retrieved from https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/workforce/interactive-data/figure-18-percentage-all-active-physicians-race/ethnicity-2018#:~:text=Diversity%20in%20Medicine%3A%20Facts%20and%20Figures%202019,-New%20section&text=Among%20active%20physicians%2C%2056.2%25%20identified,as%20Black%20or%20African%20American.(Accessed March 16,2021)

Vega, W. A. , Rodriguez, M. A. , & Gruskin, E. (2009). Health Disparities In The Latino Population. Epidemiologic Reviews, 31, 99-112. Doi: 10.1093/epirev/mxp008