How advocacy group data can serve as a sentinel to the right to health

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Rene S. Cabral-Daniels, JD, MPH, Office of Health Policy and Planning, Virginia Department of Health, 109 Governor Street, Suite 1016, Richmond, VA 23219, 804.864.7425, Rene.Cabraldaniels@vdh.virginia.gov

Access to health care is difficult for vulnerable populations. The Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) is a national patient advocacy organization that assures access to care by providing free mediation services for individuals with chronic, debilitating, or life threatening conditions. PAF tracks demographic, disease, insurance status, and legal issue data for this medically vulnerable population. Over 155,000 patients were served by PAF in 2005. Analyses of the composition of and challenges faced by this vulnerable population can serve as a sentinel to the difficulties Americans currently face in their efforts to exercise their right to health. Further, detailed analysis of PAF's racial and ethnic patient data will illuminate the unique challenges for the future as minority populations transition to majority populations.

Longitudinal data from patients served by PAF will be presented in the context of issues that the data raise about access to care. Regional health access challenges will be identified. Analysis of the data by age-sex cohorts will reveal disparate access barriers. Disease and insurance data will provide insight into the causation of the medical related debt crises. Finally, legal issue data will identify where legal protection is most lacking for this most vulnerable population.

The session will provide health access mediation data that can be used to quantify current as well as future legal challenges regarding the right to health. These advocacy data can challenge legal jurisprudence surrounding the right to healthcare as sociological data has influenced jurisprudence regarding the right to education in Brown v. Board of Education.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

1. Rank the health access challenges requiring mediation faced by the most medically vulnerable populations in their quest to exercise their right to health.
2. Anticipate how this ranking is likely to change in the future as minority populations transition to majority poulations.
3. Recognize the crucial role of advocacy group collected data in understanding and influencing legal jurisprudence concerning the right to health.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation

The Right to Health

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA