Speech #930006047

Mr. President. when I introduced the original Migrant Health Act which was passed in 1962. it was in recognition of the failure of existing private health services or Government programs to provide adequate health care services to the Nations migrant workers. The migrant and seasonal farmworker knows the daily tragedy of substandard living conditions. inadequate nutrition. and an inability to gain entry into any healthcare system He and his family are constantly plagued by communicable and chronic disease. There was no mystery as to the reasons for these conditions. The average family income during the 1960s for a family of five was less than $2.500 per annum according to Department of Labor estimates. The depressed lifestyle of migratory laborers and their families. the isolation and exploitation they faced. and the lack of social services available to them as they crisscrossed the Nation from Texas to Michigan. Florida to Ohio and New York. from Arizona to California and Washington is evident. In 1973. health care conditions for the migrant farmworker remain critical. According to the Department of Health. Education. and Welfare. the migrant health program still reaches less than 10 percent of the eligible population. and this is due largely to the inadequacy of funding levels. A large number of studies have documented the poor health of migrants as a group. Among the findings of these studies are the following: Migrant births occur outside of hospitals at nine times the national rate18.1 to 2.4 percent. Infant mortality for migrants is 25percent higher than the national average30.1 to 24.4 per 1.000 live births. Mortality rates for TB and other infectious diseases among migrants are 21 times the national rate. for influenza and pneumonia. it is 20percent greater than the national rate. Hospitalization for accidents is 50percent higher than the national rate. The average American has seven times the numbers of medical visits per year than the average migrant4.3 against 0.61 visits. In 1968. $12 per capita was spent for health services for migrants. more than $250 per capita was spent nationally. But the first 11 years of the Migrant Health Act has clearly demonstrated that there are ways of developing health services for the Nations migrant population. Night family health clinics have been started in labor camps. Bilingual personnel are employed. In fact. it was within the migrant health program that the recruitment and training of the bilingual community health worker was first started in a project in Kern County. Calif.. in 1964. Some of the migrant projects. particularly in the Northern States. have made impressive strides in developing onestop comprehensive primary care service. In other States. the migrant health program has provided financial incentives to existing health facilities seeking to induce them to accept migrant patients. By 1971. as a result of a special migrant task force. the migrant health program had developed several prototypes of health care delivery services for various migrant populations. Ironically. despite the popular notion that it would be impossible to establish anything but makeshift operations for migrants in rural areas. it has been demonstrated that in less than 3 years. most of the projects could develop onsite laboratory capabilities. basic diagnostic services. family centered primary care rather than fragmented categorical clinics. bilingual personnel. onsite medical services and referral services to specialty practices. Mr. President. despite the progress which has been made over the last 11 years in providing health care to migrant workers and their families. we have learned that the administration In its 1974 budget proposes to recommend the termination of the Migrant Health Act together with its builtin program direction and safeguards. In my judgment. this represents a callous disregard for everything which we in the Congress have worked to achieveproviding the migrant worker with a basic right to health. Today. together with Senators KEN-