Speech #870275635

The terms of the legislation provide for sharing of project costs between the Federal Government and the project grant applicant. While no specific State or local matching is required by the legislation. it is anticipated that State and local contributions of funds. personnel. services. facilities. and equipment will exceed the amount of Federal grants. State and local health and welfare agencies. growers associations. health and welfare councils. medical societies. educational institutions. and other qualified community groups would be eligible to apply for migrant health grants. This program places primary emphasis on the establishment and operation of familytype outpatient clinic services for preventive and curative care. located where migrant families can reach them easily. and operated under circumstances which make their services truly accessible. These clinics. already in limited use in such places as Fresno. Calif.. and Palm Beach County. Fla.. have demonstrated that taking health services to the migrants either through mobile units or through temporary facilities will result in effective use of the services offered. It is expected that this will reduce the number of cases which will have to be hospitalized. thus reducing the physical and financial burden otherwise required to be borne by local taxpayers. doctors. and existing medical facilities. Other projects will focus on the development of effective ways to help the migrants to understand and assume greater responsibility in meeting their problems. Still other types of health activities which would be undertaken include visits by public health nurses to migrant labor camps. sanitary inspections of camps. worksites. and temporary rest stops to assure the maintenance of adequate sanitary facilities. including safe and adequate water supplies. and the exchange of information between health workers in different areas to assure the availability of needed health services and to eliminate unnecessary duplication. Testimony before our committee and that of the Senate has indicated strong support for this legislatiofi. Such groups as the American Public Health Association. the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers. the National Education Association. the National Consumers League. the National Council of Churches. the National Child Labor Committee. and the National Farmers Union have emphasized the need for concerted effort to be made by local communities. the States. and the Federal Government. The movement of the migrants from State to State makes their welfare an interstate concern. deserving of Federal notice and effort. The communities in which migrants work cannot be expected to shoulder the entire burden of health care and other services. At present. the responsibility must rest with all of usthe growers for whom the migrants work. the towns and States through which they must pass. and the Nation for whom they produce. It is not intended that the Federal Government will take over the financial burdens already assumed by the States and local agencies. but instead. through the provision of project grants. to stimulate new migrant health activity with the resulting projects becoming selfsustaining in the future wherever possible. The million American farm migrants need a decent and healthy environment. and a chance to avoid those illnesses which can so easily be prevented. but are a constant plague to them. The poverty of these migrants. their lack of health knowledge. and their physical isolation and mobility. all tend to limit their access to community health services. Their poor health not only affects their own lives and opportunities. but is a threat to the members of the permanent communities through which they migrate. Ordinarily. communities in the migrant work areas have facilities and personnel designed to meet only the health needs of their own local residents. These facilities and personnel are not capable of meeting the health needs of large numbers of persons who work temporarily in their areas. Local laws and ordinances establishing residence requirements for health care frequently bar migrant workers from health services which otherwise might be available to them. Even in those cases where local facilities are available to migrant workers. they often are available at times. places. and under conditions which result in the workers being unable to avail themselves of the services. President Kennedy. in his health message of February 1962. said that agricultural migrants and their families have unmet needs far greater than those of the general population. He went on to say: To help improve their health conditions. I recommend. in addition to expanding the special Public Health Service activities directed to them. the enactment of legislation to encourage the States to provide facilities and services for migrant workers. Mr. Chairman. I urge the enactment of this legislation. which would be a step toward meeting the urgent health needs of our domestic agricultural migrants and their families.