Report: Lack Of Transportation A Barrier To Better Health For Latino Community

For Wisconsin’s rapidly growing Latino population, access to transportation, bilingual health care providers and full-time work with benefits remain major barriers to addressing health disparities.

A report on the health of the Latino community in southern and central Wisconsin by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Carbone Cancer Center Health Disparities Initiative found many of those living in the 20-county area studied get their health care from low-income community clinics. And no matter where they get their health care, transportation is often difficult.

Last year a Dane County task force on immigration recommended driver licenses for those without legal status.

Gov. Tony Evers supports doing so but Republican lawmakers have indicated they won’t allow such a proposal to stay in the state budget.

There are roughly 100,000 Latinos living in the 20-county area served by the Carbone Cancer Center and most are employed, but the report said those jobs often don’t pay well and are part-time or seasonal. Of the 41 percent of Wisconsin’s Latino population who hold “poverty-wage jobs,” half don’t receive health benefits, according to the report. Also, many people work several jobs, making it difficult to live a healthy lifestyle and attend health care appointments.

Dr. Patricia Tellez-Giron is a family physician with UW Health who helped coordinate the study’s focus groups. She has seen improvements in cultural sensitivity over the years such as more interpreters for Spanish-speaking patients. But there are some in the Latino community — especially those living in the country without documentation — who avoid using health services.

“I’m a citizen but it has become really difficult. The perception of the general public of who we are and how we are here in the United States — a lot of prejudice and racial discrimination. So if I feel it as a physician, my patients are feeling it even worse,” said Tellez-Giron.

The report said 64 percent of Latinos in the region studied were born in the United States and the majority are native to Wisconsin.

The report also showed diabetes is a concern, and that overall cancer rates are relatively low but that could change as the population ages.