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| What will you do this month? |
April is National Minority Health Month. This year's theme, "Health Equity Can't Wait. Act Now InYour CommUnity", once again brings attention to the disparities in healthcare within our communities. We are still at the top of the lists for many highly preventable diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cervical and colon cancer. While there have been major strides made in the past few years, there is still such a huge gap in getting access to basic preventative care, quality long-term care and insurance.
The Affordable Care Act
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the number of Americans with insurance has increased. New insurance plans must cover some basic women's health services, including birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings and annual well-woman screenings without the usual hefty co-pays and deductibles tacked on. Unfortunately, it's still not enough. We deserve more. Many of us are still in a position where we have to choose either feeding our families, or going to see a doctor. It becomes a vicious cycle of guessing when to finally go to the hospital. Do we try to wait it out? Try some home remedies first?
Now we get to wait until June for the Supreme Court to decide whether or not the individual mandate, is constitutional. Will they throw it out and then try to save the rest? Will it all just fall apart? Who continues to suffer?? That's right, we do!
Take action
Ultimately, it's our responsibility. We need to become our own health advocates, so that we know what preventative care and services we need. Without this knowledge, how will we be able to make those people we elected, actually work for us. Throughout the month of April, CVS/pharmacy is offering free healthcare screenings in 10 cities as part of their launch of Project Health/Proyecto Salud. On site bilingual medical professionals will be there to check your blood pressure, cholesterol, and provide screening for diabetes and BMI (body mass index). No appointment is needed, and did we say it was free!
On Saturday, May 19th, the New York chapter of Tamika & Friends, Inc., has organized free cervical cancer screenings at Gynecologic Oncology. If you're in New York and don't have insurance, please take advantage of this amazing opportunity! Call for an appointment at (917) 829-8369, or email us at nycchapter@tamikaandfriends.org
Cheers to your health! Let us know what action you will be doing within your own community.
xoxo Helen & Patti
Wish this extended to more cities in California since I have three extended family members with no insurance but thank you for doing a great service. I hope more readers tweet your message.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I'm sure there are other programs out in California that offer similar services, but we will do our best in the future to add links in the West Coast. Have a wonderful weekend and Easter if you celebrate.
ReplyDeletexoxo Helen & Patti