Kay Hagan Embarrasses Me

This week the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee wrapped up their multi-week debate on the Affordable Health Choices Act -- passed 13-10!.

Yesterday, the committee approved, by voice vote, an amendment by Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC). The amendment that would exclude “temporary or seasonal agricultural workers . . . for the purposes of determining the size of an employer.”

What does that mean? It means that large agricultural employers wouldn’t have to count the tens of thousands of farm workers (sometimes called Immokalee, after the town in Florida) as employees. If they manage to exclude enough folks, then they – voila! – become a small business, exempt from the employer mandate to provide health insurance benefits.

Hagan was already on my radar after voting against the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Now she’s earned a place on the sh*list for, essentially, denying health insurance coverage to some of the most vulnerable workers in the United States.

Farmworkers have the worst health indicators of any US subpopulation. Since we’re about helping other mothers, I’ll start there: 97% of farmworker mothers are accompanied by their minor children; only 42% had any sort of prenatal care (compared with 76% nationally); infant mortality rates among farm workers are at least 25% higher than the national average (around 10 per 100,000 births); irony alert! 82% of farm workers households experienced food insecurity and 49% went hungry; 88% of children were exposed to toxic pesticides; women farmworkers are more likely to be depressed and attempt or commit suicide.

Think this is a travesty? Call Hagan’s office at 202-224-6342 (if you’re a constituent, you might also want to call either her Greensboro office at 336-333-5311 or the Raleigh office 919-856-4630). You can email her here.

Maybe we should start a campaign. Mail Sen. Hagan a pack of seeds and ask if she thinks the people who plant them, water them, and pick the resulting fruit and vegetables that feed her and the nation deserve health care.

Photo credit: Korean Resource Center on Flickr. Creative Commons License.

Comments

[Lyra Halprin]

Great post. Farm workers are often left out of the equation. I've worked in sustainable agriculture at the University of California for the last 20+ years and the irony of 'food insecurity' for this group of workers is startling. Time to call Kay...

[louise hardin]

If these farm workers are illegals, which a lot are,
they should not receive health care coverage. We don't have the money in this country any more to keep
up another country's citizens.

[Melissa]

Re: Louise. Some are, sure, but Avian flu doesn't care if you've got citizenship. By refusing to treat sick people, we spread disease. Furthermore, emergency rooms are required to treat anyone. Unfortunately, ER care is FAR more expensive than preventive care.

Also, many of the children of farm workers are US citizens who are entitled to appropriate care, usually via Medicaid and SCHIP.