Speech #930013719

Mr. President. I have today asked that my name be added as a cosponsor of S. 740. a bill that would extend the Migrant Health Act for 4 years and provide much needed funds for health care and hospitalization for migrant and seasonal farmworkers. The migrant health program. first authorized in 1962. and subsequently extended three times. will expire at the end of this June if we do not breathe new life into the program. It is unfortunate. but all too true. that the program must be extended. for today. as 10 years ago. neither existing private health services nor Government programs provide adequate health care services to the Nations farmworkers. Migrant and seasonal farmworker health needs are critical. and those needs must be met. Health care for farmworkers today Is inadequate because of the poverty. lack of education. language. and cultural barriers. constant mobility. lack of community health care and manpower resources. health needs. although funds have been grossly inadequate. and transportation problems. For the first time. under the migrant health program. we began to meet farmworker Unmet farmworker health needs in Michigan were graphically displayed in a May 1972 report released by the public health service. First. it is estimated that there are almost 100.000 migrant farmworkers and family members who come to Michigan each year to work in the fields and harvest our States fresh fruits and vegetables. Of these. over 50 percent are apparently totally out of range of existing programs. and thus totally excluded from services. The remainder are within range of programs. but less than 20 percent are serviced by programs in Michigan. The tricounty migrant health project in St. Joseph was able to serve only 7.000 of the 19.000 farm labor population. the eastcentral Michigan project located in Saginaw was able to serve only 2.000 of an estimated 8.000 migrants. and the northwest Michigan health services program in Traverse City served only 1.500 of a total migrant population of 14.000. The need for substantially increasing the funding for this program is established in Michigan. and the unmet needs reflect only a part of the Nations responsibility to protect this segment of the population whose problems are national in scope and Interstate in nature. Mr.