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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Sonal Ambegaokar, JD, National Immigration Law Center, 3435 Wilshire Boulevard Suite Suite 2850, Los Angeles, CA 90010, 2136393900 ext 114, ambegaokar@nilc.org

There are multiple factors that limit access to health care for Latinos - most of which can be linked to the fact that health care is not a human right in the United States. For instance, lack of health insurance is a critical barrier for Latinos to access regular health care. Immigration status is another barrier for Latinos, even when they or their citizen children are eligible for public health coverage programs such as Medicaid or S-CHIP. The objectives of this session will be to address four common barriers to health care faced by many Latinos – enrollment to public health insurance or other programs, general immigration concerns, reporting/confidentiality concerns, and language access – and to learn from some successful strategies that have used to try to combat those barriers.

Bio Ms. Sonal Ambegaokar is the Health Policy Attorney at the National Immigration Law Center where she monitors, analyzes and makes recommendations concerning federal, state and local policies affecting low-income immigrants' access to affordable health care. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Davis.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session the participant will be able to

• Recognize barriers to Latino access to healthcare,
• Learn what needs to be done to overcome these barriers.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No