NYC Latina Advocacy Network Holds Discussion on Health Care Reform

On Friday, March 21st, the New York City Latina Advocacy Network (NYC LAN) held a discussion on the subject of health care.  The discussion was sponsored by Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.  The discussion was facilitated by the lovely Eesha Pandit, Director of Advocacy at MergerWatch and Kelly McIntyre, who is currently an intern at the same organization, took notes.

Raising Women’s Voices is a national initiative supporting quality and affordable health care for all.  They have been hosting discussions throughout the United States asking women to share stories about their experiences with the health care system.  These small group discussions have informed five guiding principles on which to base health care reform that addresses the concerns of women.  The NYC LAN discussion was part of this effort.

For this discussion, six members of the NYC LAN got together and shared stories about the problems they have encountered with doctors and hospitals, the insensibility and lack of judgment from health care workers, and the inaccessibility of medical records, among other things.  From all the stories the members shared, Eesha Pandit helped the group draw out common themes, which made it obvious to see that problems we often feel are isolated, are actually problems all women go through when dealing with the health care system.

To read more about Raising Women’s Voices’ principles for quality and affordable health care for all, click here.  Raising Women’s Voices has also been hard at work organizing a national conference taking place in Boston on April 17-18.  If you would like to attend, it is not too late!  You can go here to register. 

The Latina Institute’s own Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas will be in attendance and speaking in a panel titled, “Uninsured or Under-Insured: Who is Left Out of the System Now?”  Our colleagues, Diana Salas from the Women of Color Policy Network (and member of the NYC-LAN) and Lucy Felix from Migrant Health Promotion, will also be presenting at the conference.

Interested in getting involved with the NYC Latina Advocacy Network? Email intern3@latinainstitute.org

–Raquel Namuche