San Diego, CA–(HISPANIC PR WIRE)–September 20, 2006–“Salud, amor y dinero” goes the Spanish toast, implicitly recognizing the importance of good health as a precondition for enjoying the other two. In practice, however, much of Southern California’s Hispanic population is having a hard time putting health first. Only 37% receive health insurance through their employers, while 32% – priced out of or rejected by the individual market because of pre-existing conditions – have no health insurance at all. This situation leads many Hispanics to postpone routine doctor visits and screenings and impacts the long-term health outlook of this population.
While business publications tout Hispanic-owned businesses as the fastest growing segment of the economy, the number of Hispanic employers who offer health insurance has declined in lock step with the rest of the small business community. To address this issue, the San Diego Business Healthcare Connection (BHC), with the support of the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF), Kaiser Permanente and Union Bank of California, is introducing Salud Segura: La guia sobre seguros de salud en California: Implementacion en su empresa (Salud Segura: A guide to health insurance in California: Setting up a health plan for your business). Written in Spanish in a Q&A format, the guide summarizes the complex web of private health plans, public programs and community resources that are available for small businesses and their employees.
The BHC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide objective, cost-free information to the business community on health insurance issues, enabling business owners to make informed decisions that will benefit their employees as well as their bottom line. A PDF version of the guide will be available on the BHC website shortly: http://http://www.sdbhc.org.
Salud Segura was produced by La Guia del Inmigrante, Inc., an Encinitas-based company that specializes in Spanish-language publications that help immigrants to navigate life in the United States. Their website is http://http://www.laguiadelinmigrante.net.
For more information, or to obtain a copy of Salud Segura, please contact BHC:
Phone: 619-231-0333, e-mail: info@sdbhc.org, Website: http://http://www.sdbhc.org
