Speech #910256132

I wish to commend Senator MONDALE for the outstanding series of hearings conducted last week by the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor. Senator MONDALE. chairman of the Migratory Labor Subcommittee. has brought to public attention another powerful reminder that our national priorities must be reordered and made to focus on human problems as they exist today in our own country. Fortunately. we have already on the law books. an appropriate and invaluable vehicle for changing one of these priorities: the Migrant Health Act of 1962. And the shocking revelations in last weeks hearings by the Field Foundations physician team tell us in no uncertain terms that this act must be put to workthat an allout public commitmenta new national priorityis required to respond to the enormous health needs of migrant children and the migrant family generally. The need for a massive effort in this area is not news to me. As chairman of the Migratory Labor Subcommittee from 1959 to 1969. I traveled in more than a dozen States. visiting the migrant families in their homes. in the fields. along the roads and ditches. and thereby learned firsthand of their critical health needs. My findings from these efforts. along with the recommendation which became the Migrant Health Act of 1962. were set forth in the 1961 report of the Migratory Labor Subcommittee. The importance of good migrant health to the public at large. aside from humane concern for migrants. was emphasized in that report. and I quote: Their needs for health services are far from being met even though the conditions under which they live and work are such that their need for health services is greater than normal. and even though their poor health conditions frequently pose a real health hazard to communities through which they travel * * * A recent diphtheria epidemic in Hale County. Texas. Involving 72 cases of which 29 were among migratory farm families. needlessly exposed the 37.000 residents of Hale County to an expensive battle against this dreaded and highly contagious disease. On extraordinarily high infant mortality rates among migrants. the 1961 report stated: The high migratory infant death rates provide further alarming evidence of the serious health problems confronting the migratory farm family. That the migratory infant death rate is about double the normal death rate can scarcely be attributed to anything other than the lack of ordinary. proper prenatal and postnatal care. Strong corroboration of this fact is found in the March 1960 report by the American Journal of Public Health. which states that the mortality rate of newborn infants whose mothers received no prenatal care (48.8) was almost 21 times greater than the mortality rate of all newborn infants (20.8). This kind of evidence led to the enactment of the 1962 Migrant Health Act. which. in turn. led to additional facts and information showing the great severity and scope of the migrant health problem. In opening the hearings on the 1968 extension of the Migrant Health Act. I stated: It is still the exception rather than the rile. for the migrant farmworker and his family to have available even the barest minimum of medical services. I also pointed out that 750.000 migrants live and work outside the areas served by migrant health projects existing in 1968. Our hearing record on the 1968 extension showed that this large group of migrants. 750.000. not covered by the health projects. but who incidentally travel into 48 of the 50 States. had a most alarming health profile. The group included. by conservative estimatesFirst. over 6.500 persons with diabetes who are without adequate medical care. Second. over 5.000 migrants with tuberculosis who are traveling and working with their disease undetected and untreated. Third. over 300 children under the age of 18 who have suffered cardiac damage as a result of rheumatic fever. These children are unlikely to receive treatment for prevention of reinfection and further cardiac damage.