About Us

Our Mission | Who We Are | What We Are Working For | Our Work | Board Of Directors

OUR MISSION

The mission of Latinos for National Health Insurance (LNHI) is to serve as a Latino-focused organization whose purpose is to educate Latino organizations, individuals, government officials and community leaders about the need to establish a comprehensive, universal, equitable and affordable program of national health insurance where EVERYONE is covered from birth.

WHO WE ARE

LHNI is a NewYork City-based national coalition that works for equality in healthcare. Our coalition is composed of Latinos leaders and supporters in many fields - medicine, business, labor, education - who feel passionately that what nuestra gente need - our country needs! - is a national health insurance program where every person is covered from the time they are born, regardless of immigration status.

LNHI came together in 2005 in response to the deepening health crisis in our community and the growing demand - from grassroots, the media and even businesses - that universal healthcare is needed now.

We are a not-for-profit educational organization, and all contributions are deductible through our fiscal agent.

WHAT WE ARE WORKING FOR

We believe that every person residing in the USA and its territories has a right to equal access to high quality healthcare. We believe access to healthcare should not be distributed based on ability to pay.

While there are many barriers in our community to adequate healthcare, such as language barriers, cultural competency, and lack of a diverse workforce, to name but a few, the primary barrier — preventing nearly a quarter of all Latinos from accessing the system — is lack of health insurance. We believe that addressing the plight of the uninsured needs to be the initial and most important step we can take towards eliminating health disparities.

The elimination of segregation and unequal access in our current healthcare system should take utmost priority. In this country we essentially have a three-tier system. The lowest tier is the uninsured. The highest tier is those having private insurance or national health insurance for the elderly, known as Medicare. These insurance programs are widely accepted by physicians and hospitals and these groups enjoy the best levels of access to healthcare.

The second tier of our segregated healthcare system is those covered through the various insurance programs that currently exist to serve the poor. These programs, including Medicaid and SCHIP, are critical components of the healthcare safety net. However, the many hurdles the poor and near poor have to overcome to be insured under these programs and to maintain coverage makes these programs a far cry from the stable comprehensive health coverage that persons in first tier, such as Medicare beneficiaries, enjoy. Another major flaw is that these programs are viewed as poverty programs by state and federal legislators and, like other such programs, are chronically under-funded.

Under NHI, coverage would be automatic and permanent, publicly funded and administered through one single entity that pays all the bills. Healthcare delivery would remain private and most doctors would practice under fee-for-service as they do now with Medicare.

OUR WORK

Through presentations, publications, and other outreach and advocacy efforts, we seek to inform groups and organizations, including elected officials, of the insurance crisis in the Latino community and the need for a comprehensive approach to health insurance coverage based on national health insurance.

Board Of Directors