Health Equity and Accountability Act

Floor Speech

Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, last September, I was honored to welcome the Tri-Caucus Health Disparities Summit to my home State of New Mexico. The Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque brought experts from all over the country together to talk about what they are seeing as providers, researchers, and patients; and we heard that communities of color continue to face substantial cultural, social, and economic barriers to obtaining quality health care and achieving equitable health outcomes.

Several of my colleagues in fact joined me at that summit, and we all pledged not to just acknowledge these disparities, but to act to provide the tools and resources necessary to achieve health equity. That is what the Health Equity and Accountability Act does.

It is a comprehensive bill, developed with significant stakeholder input, that would build on the gains of the Affordable Care Act and put in place the policies and the infrastructure needed to eliminate health disparities.

The bill sets national standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate care and includes programs to address diseases that disproportionately impact minority communities. It also provides grants and scholarships to build diversity in the health care workforce and extends funding to strengthen the health IT infrastructure in minority communities.

These provisions are just part of a larger strategic approach because problems like this really are more systemic. We can't just add some funding here or make a policy change there and walk away. This takes thoughtful, comprehensive policy to make a substantial long-lasting difference on issues like this.

I would like to commend my colleague, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard from California, for her leadership on this bill. It is not easy to put together a bill of this size in consultation with dozens of Members' offices and more than 300 stakeholder groups, but she managed to do just that, and I thank her for putting together one of the best versions of this bill I think Congress has had before it.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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