Puerto Rican coalition asks Congress for health equality
The National Puerto Rican Coalition has asked Congress to adopt revisions to pending healthcare reform legislation to better address the needs of U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico.
"We are on the verge of historic reforms, so let's do the job right," said Rafael Fantauzzi, president of the NPRC, a non-partisan civil rights and advocacy organization.
Fantauzzi said the Senate version of healthcare reform prohibits Puerto Rican residents from participating in health insurance exchanges, fails to provide equitable funding for the island's Medicaid program and doesn't address long-standing funding disparities for Medicare on the island.
Puerto Rico faces the same Medicaid mandates as states, but funding for the territory's Medicaid program is only 17 percent per capita of what states receive.
According to Fantauzzi, upwards of 400,000 uninsured Puerto Ricans will be deprived of equal access to healthcare if they can't take part in health insurance exchanges included in the Senate's healthcare reform proposal.
"It's unfortunate that American citizens in the territories continue to be an afterthought when it comes to healthcare, and this is Congress' best chance to fix the problem," he said. "They're unlikely to revisit this issue in the near future.”
"If Congress fails to act, it will force increased migration to the mainland, so that the burden of healthcare costs will continue to be shifted to states like Florida, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It's a case of fairness now or higher costs later," said NPRC Chairman Miguel Lausell.
