Political Quotes

“today I rise today to give tribute to some of the health care heroes in my home State of Oregon. They are the hard-working people who staff the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center in Cornelius, OR. Virginia Garcia was a 6-year-old girl who died from a treatable infection in the 1970s. She died, not because she lacked health care, but because no one spoke to her family in the only language they knew-- Spanish. Access to health care involves more than insurance. Barriers to access continue to exist even when financial problems to health care are removed. Disparities in health care and health outcomes reflect these barriers. For example, Latinos are twice as likely as White Americans to have diabetes, and twice as likely to have cervical cancer. They also trail other ethnic groups in childhood immunizations and health insurance coverage. The Virginia Garcia Clinic does a wonderful job at bridging the large gap between access to coverage and access to care. The clinic serves nearly 8,000 patients a year, 80 percent of whom are Spanish speaking, and 90 percent of whom are below the poverty level. Patients in the clinic pay for their services on a sliding scale, sometimes as low as $5 per visit. Access to high quality, affordable, and culturally accessible care has saved many lives, and improved the quality of lives of many others.”