Speech #1050061620

Reductions in infant mortality. longterm disability. and infant and maternal illnesses have been demonstrated in numerous studies documenting the importance of prenatal care. Healthier mothers and babies lead happier lives. resulting in smaller health care costs in the long run. Legal immigrants deserve the same access to these essential prenatal care services as full citizens. We owe much of our countrys development and success to legal immigrants. My ancestors and most of the ancestors of my colleagues and fellow citizens entered the country as immigrants. We need to acknowledge not only the contributions of past immigrants. but of current legal immigrants. Many legal immigrants today serve in our military and are hardworking taxpayers. They deserve basic health services in return for their contribution to society. If legal immigrants are denied access to such effective prenatal care. both the government and these immigrants will suffer. In my home state of California nearly 1 million legal immigrants rely on MediCal for their medical coverage. many of which receive prenatal care. If California gains more independent leverage in funding MediCal. as is proposed in the welfare law. innocent mothers and babies stand to be denied preventive care. Instead. they will crowd our hospitals and emergency rooms for avoidable crisis care as well as routine matters. The costs that our state will have to absorb will well offset any savings incurred through the welfare law. This process will be repeated throughout the country. leaving millions of legal immigrants and their states. in dire financial. not to mention public health. straits. I am baffled by why my Republican colleagues would want to encourage the demise of prenatal care programs for legal immigrants just as programs such as MediCal have proven to work so well. According to the California Policy Seminar. MediCal expansions during the 1990s have increased the percentage of pregnant women who received adequate care once they began prenatal care from 72 percent in 1990 to 85 percent in 1995. Willfully halting the progress that has been made in prenatal care availability is irresponsible. immoral. and illogical. Instead of dismantling prenatal care programs for legal immigrants we should be focusing on improving the timeliness of care received by legal immigrant mothers. I appeal to my colleagues to consider these realities as we continue to debate budget expenditures. The attached summary of a California Policy Seminar study on prenatal care documents the need to maintain coverage for legal immigrant prenatal care services. An investment in important preventive health programs secures a healthy future for our country and the legal immigrants who will continue to be integral to our progress as a nation.