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The Cost of Citizenship

Community Health Centers Help the Unisured

Conference: Expanding Informal Science Education for Latinos

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The Cost of Citizenship

Barriers — financial and physical — could influence the makeup of newly naturalized Americans. After citizen application rates rose 70 percent, from $440 to $675, half as many people have applied for US citizenship in the beginning of this year compared to last year.

Under the increases, which cover almost all immigration benefits, the cost of bringing a foreign fiance or fiancee will jump to $455 from $170. The price tag for a green card, or permanent resident visa, will rise to $930 from $325, and the cost of citizenship papers will increase to $675 from $440.

To become eligible for citizenship, a person must be a legal permanent resident who has lived continuously in the US for 5 years. Those that do apply sometimes use loans to foot the bill. Immigrant advocates say the fee exceeds processing costs, and they want the cost to be tied to federal minimum wage and funded by Congress.

Critics reacted quickly. Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto), head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the group was concerned that the fee increases would put citizenship out of reach for many. “Many Hispanic families will be hurt by this decision,” Baca said, adding that the agency should have worked with Congress “to provide a more workable, just solution.”

Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Assn., called the decision disappointing. “The fees are simply too high for the level of service provided and too high for the affordability for a lot of the people it’s supposed to be serving,” she said.

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), co-author of a bipartisan immigration bill in the House, criticized the agency for its inefficiency. It has a backlog of about 1 million applications. “These fees are a glaring example of the government imposing a higher price on its customers, while continuing to offer inefficient services,” he said.

Source: CitizenSugar.com and Los Angeles Times

Community Health Centers Help the Unisured

According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, there are 1,200 Community Health Centers spread across 50 states and all U.S. territories, that provide vital primary care to 18 million Americans with limited financial resources.

These Community Health Centers provide vital health services to many Hispanics living in the United States, in particular those without health insurance. Health centers maintain an open-door policy, providing treatment regardless of an individual’s income or insurance coverage. They serve the homeless, residents of public housing, migrant farm workers and others with emergent and chronic health care needs, but limited resources to secure treatment through traditional channels.

Community health centers provide a highly cost-effective model that should be considered by those seeking to solve the nation’s health care crisis. Among some of the benefits are:

• Improve Access to Primary and Preventive Care. Health centers provide preventive services to vulnerable populations that would otherwise not have access to certain services, such as immunizations, health education, mammograms, pap smears, and other screenings. Low income, uninsured health center patients are much more likely to have a usual source of care than the uninsured nationally. Moreover, uninsured people living within close proximity to a health center are less likely to have an unmet medical need, less likely to visit the emergency room or have a hospital stay, and more likely to have had a general medical visit compared to other uninsured.

• Cost-Effective Care. Care received at health centers is ranked among the most cost-effective. Several studies have found that health centers save the Medicaid program around 30% in annual spending for health center Medicaid beneficiaries. Furthermore, health centers generate savings for the entire health care system of up $17.6 billion a year. These savings are the result of less reliance on costly specialty, inpatient, and emergency room care. Furthermore, if avoidable visits to emergency rooms were redirected to health centers, over $18 billion in annual health care costs could be saved nationally.

• High Quality of Care. Studies have found that the quality of care provided at health centers is equal to or greater than the quality of care provided elsewhere. Moreover, 99% of surveyed patients report that they were satisfied with the care they receive at health centers.

• Reduction of Health Disparities. Disparities in health status do not exist among health center patients, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors. The absence of such disparities at health centers may be related to their culturally sensitive practices and community involvement – features that other primary care settings often lack. Moreover, as more of a state’s low income population is served by health centers, racial and ethnic health disparities in key areas are reduced across the state.

• Effective Management of Chronic Illness. Health centers meet or exceed nationally accepted practice standards for treatment of chronic conditions. In fact, the Institute of Medicine and the Government Accountability Office have recognized health centers as models for screening, diagnosing, and managing chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, depression, cancer, and HIV. Health centers’ efforts have led to improved health outcomes for their patients, as well as lowered the cost of treating patients with chronic illness.

• Improve Birth Outcomes. Health centers also improve access to timely prenatal care. Communities served by health centers have infant mortality rates at least 10% lower than comparable communities not served by health centers. Women of low socioeconomic status seeking care at health centers experience lower rates of low birth weight compared to all such mothers. This trend holds for each racial/ethnic group.

• Create Jobs and Stimulate Economic Growth. In addition to health care savings, health centers also bring much needed economic benefits to the low income communities they serve. Their overall economic impact reaches $12.6 billion annually, while also producing 143,000 jobs some of the country’s most economically deprived neighborhoods.

Learn more about community health centers through the National Association of Community Health Centers.

Conference: Expanding Informal Science Education for Latinos

March 26, 2009

to

March 29, 2009

Conference held in Albuquerque, NM, hosted by SRF. Click here for more details.

HACU Capitol Forum on Higher Education

March 1, 2009

to

March 3, 2009

For more details visit the HACU website.