More on binational health programs

[Guest guest]

Hi Liz, and everyone - Liz, your work sounds terrific. Can you send

me a preprint or whatever you have when it becomes available? Thanks. (DV,

POBox 381, 95617)

It has also occurred to me that the most extensive binational programs now

currently providing health care services to hired farm workers are the

Western Growers Assurance Trust (the insurance unit of the Western Growers

Association, covers about 140,000 agricultural workers nationwide through

their employers) and the F. Kennedy Medical Plan (United Farm

Workers, covers between 4,000 and 5,000 hired farm workers). Both of these

organizations have offices in Mexico for the purpose of assisting U.S.

hired farm workers who prefer to utilize service providers in Mexico. It

is my understanding that the WGA plan does not require copayment for

certain services by Mexican providers, which may be an additional incentive

to use those providers.

An interesting feature of both the WGA and RFK plans is that only name,

address, telephone number and some identifying number are required at

sign-up. The identifying number can be anything, not necessarily a SS

number or mica ID number. Neither plan asks questions about immigration

status, eligibility for one or another of the federal programs, 'migrant'

or 'seasonal' status, and so on. The main point is to cover the worker and

make the system user friendly.

Warm regards,

Don

At 01:29 PM 3/14/02 -0700, you wrote:

>Hi , and everyone,

>We are finishing the analysis of our binational health study between SE

>Idaho and central Mexico--sending villages near Dolores Hidalgo,

>Guanajuato, Mex. We have extensive data on treatment seeking

>behaviours, use of biomedical and traditional practitioners, diet,blood

>pressure, ht, wt., child growth, exercise, explanatory models of

>various diseases (cancer, diabetes, mental illnesses), diabetes rates,

>activity levels, etc. in both the US and MEX. We are currently tying

>this data into our community needs assessments and clinical chart

>reviews that we have done with the agricultural workers here in Idaho

>over the last few years.

>

>Let me know what is of interest and we can either talk about it or I

>can send you some of our working papers.

>Liz Cartwright

>Hispanic Health Projects

>Dept. of Anthropology

>Idaho State University

>Pocatello, Idaho

>

>----- Original Message -----

>From: " Diringer " <jdiringer@...>

>Date: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 11:18 am

>Subject: [ ] Binational health programs

>

>> I am doing some preliminary work on developing binational health

>> programsfor California farmworker families who migrate back and

>> forth from Mexico. I

>> am looking for background literature (reports, studies, white papers,

>> research, proceedings, presentations, model programs, etc) to help

>> understand what has already been done. I don't want to reinvent

>> the wheel,

>> but material seems to be sparse. I have CIRS's Binational Health

>> Survey done

>> by Rick MInes, et al., as well as some information from Xotchil

>> CastenedaCalifornia-Mexico Health Inititiative. If you are aware

>> of any other

>> material, or have ideas for program development, please let me know.

>>

>> As a long time subscriber to this listserv (with a several month

>> hiatus) I

>> appreciate the feedback that members have been able to offer and look

>> forward to hearing from you.

>> Diringer, JD, MPH

>> Diringer and Associates

>> 2475 Ave., Ste. B

>> San Obispo, CA 93401

>> 805-546-0950

>> fax: 805-546-0966

>> jdiringer@...

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>