Raising Women’s Voices in Miami!

“I am an immigrant woman. What does the health care reform bill do for me and for my family? What does it do for the members of the immigrant community who are undocumented?”

This was one of the first questions asked at a community education session on Monday night in Miami, Florida. I went to Miami to represent Raising Women’s Voices at a meeting coordinated by Miami International Latinas Organizing for Leadership and Advocacy (MI LOLA). Also presenting alongside me was Veronica Bayetti-Flores from the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH).

The MI LOLA activists are an all-volunteer run group of women who want to raise the voices of Latinas in Florida to speak up for reproductive justice. They host community sessions and actions to encourage and foster the participation of Latinas in local and state community organizing.

So, the question asked at the beginning of the discussion hit the nail right on the head. We spent a good deal of time answering it together. The answer is bittersweet. For legally documented immigrant women, there will be more opportunities to get and keep affordable coverage. There will be a Medicaid expansion that will raise the eligibility standards, so many more low income women and families will get access to care. The creation of the state-based insurance exchanges will offer another venue for documented immigrants to get access to health care. There are many provisions in the health care law that are aimed at reducing racial and ethic health disparities and providing increased funding for community health centers, where many of the most vulnerable populations (including undocumented immigrants) get care. There are also some great new developments for women’s health, such as a mandate for maternity coverage and an elimination of cost-sharing for many preventive care services (see here for the full list). For a much more complete list of “What Women Get” in the new health care law, please see here.

On the other hand, however, the additional funding for community health centers serves as the only recourse for the undocumented population, who will have no access to health care via public programs or the state insurance exchanges. Additionally, access to abortion in the exchanges will be an uphill battle, as will access to contraception (which has yet to be officially defined as a preventive service making it free from cost-sharing via co-pays and deductibles).

But these are all issues we’ve discussed at length before, what made the conversation in Miami stand out? The energy in the room. The passion of the activists. The collective sense that we have to keep working to improve this health reform bill, to ensure that its promises are met and that the problems are fixed. Stay tuned to this blog for all the details about the implementation process, and if you’re in Florida and would like to connect with MI LOLA, email us at info@raisingwomensvoices.net!