Speech #910256132

Infant and maternal mortality can be expected to be significantly higher under such conditions. and Seventh. between 20.000 to 30.000 individuals who have enteric parasitic infestationsresulting in most cases from poor sanitation. Such a problem is almost nonexistent in the general public. The Field Foundation physicians. in last weeks hearings. brought fresh and direct corroboration of the severity and the largescale proportions of the migrant health problem. Their report of diseasemuch of it preventable. tuberculosis. for example. adds further to the record of neglect that has been compiled for over a decade. Yet. despite this massive and mounting evidence of need. the migrants have been consistently shortchanged in obtaining health justice. For the current fiscal year. they are being shortchanged under the Migrant Health Act by $5 million. The administrations proposed $15 million-$5 million less than the $20 million authorized for fiscal 1971means that health justice for migrants amounts to $15 per man. woman. and child when the national per capita health expenditure is nearly $300. I propose that the administrations requested $15 million for migrant health be exactly doubled. this year. to $30 million. As mentioned earlier. we have a vehicle on the law books which can be readily used to bring health justice to migrants now. this year. In fact. we have two vehicles. the Migrant Health Act of 1962 and the Migrant Assistance Provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act. Recognizing that public health resources are unevenly organized throughout the country. those of us interested in the migrant problem successfully advanced the migrant assistance provisions. including migrant health. in the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act. So presently. we have two instruments through which the Congress and the administration can extend health care to migrants. The amendments to H.R. 18515 which I submit would increase the section 310 migrant health program of the Public Health Service Act from $15 to $20 million. the full amount authorized for fiscal 1971. and would add $10 million for migrant health to the OEO appropriation. The increase of $15 million proposed by these. amendments would yield a total migrant health program of $30 million for fiscal 1971. This would amount to only $30 per migrant man. woman. and child. compared to the national per capita health expenditure. of $300. or roughly 10 percent of the cost of the average citizens health care. While the $30 million figure is obviously lower than the national standard. the American Public Health Association believes it would establish a tolerable minimum floor with which to provide necessary services for those seasonal farmworkers who require primarily emergency and maternal care. For my part.