Role of Congress in advancing health equity (DVD)

Congress has the ability to play a vital role in eliminating health disparities.

The Affordable Care Act advances health equity, but there is still a lot more to do to achieve health equity among all communities in the states and the territories.

I introduced the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2012 (HEAA) to prohibit discrimination in federal health care programs and research activities. HEAA establishes the Office of Health Disparities in the Office of Civil Rights, establishes the Matsui Center for Cultural and Linguistic Competence in Health Care, codifies Executive Order 12898 as federal law, and begins a Healthy Food Financing Initiative in the Department of Agriculture.

HEAA also supports the information technology necessary for reducing health disparities, develops criteria for health empowerment zones, sets forth programs to reduce health disparities affecting minorities and rural residents, establishes an Office of Minority Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and sets forth provisions to improve health for women and children.

Additionally, it requires a Center for Disease Control and Prevention multisite gestational diabetes project, provides for community mental health and addiction services, expands the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, and includes the Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act of 2012, the PROSTATE Act, the Viral Hepatitis and liver Cancer Control and Prevention Act of 2012, the Bone Marrow Failure Disease Research and Treatment Act of 2012, the Stop AIDS in Prison Act of 2012, and the Minority Diabetes Initiative Act.