Tell Congress to co-sponsor the SPEAK Act

H.R. 6033 offers Latinos an opportunity to lower health care costs

Sign The Letter

America’s identity as a nation of immigrants comes with a unique set of challenges. For example, the United States is home to over 25 million people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), which creates a barrier to critical services. Namely, access to health care.

The advancement of telemedicine has closed the gap on geographical barriers, and yet, remains alarmingly out of reach for a significant portion of the population. People with LEP are 20% less likely to seek telemedicine services. This is an avoidable problem, considering 74% of Hispanics, for example, have said they would use telemedicine if it were more accessible.

This communication barrier leads to lower patient satisfaction, increased rates of misdiagnosis, and higher rates for all consumers. In fact, over the last five years, $1.7 billion in medical malpractice costs could have been avoided with better patient communication.

There is a solution.

Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA) has introduced H.R. 6033: Supporting Patient Education and Knowledge Act of 2023 (SPEAK Act), which would require Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, to improve language access for patients with LEP.

It is time to ensure that everyone in this country can get the care they need, and to lower costs for all health care consumers.

Please co-sponsor the SPEAK Act.

Sincerely,

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With rising health care costs and new developments in telehealth medicine we want to address the gap in care accessibility and ensure limited English proficient (LEP) Americans can receive medical care in their language of origin.

A new bill has been introduced that will pull together a task force to ensure suggested guidelines and best practices can be pulled together to address this need.

Email your legislator today and let them know there are bipartisan proposals to meeting health care needs.