National Hispanic Medical Association Conference in NYC Focuses on Increasing the Latino Health Care...( As a Boon to the Economy...),Health

As a Boon to the Economy, Rx for NY Unemployment

WASHINGTON, March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As New York's unemployment rate climbs to nearly 8 percent, policymakers are meeting at the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) conference March 19-22 in New York to discuss how increasing the Latino health care workforce could be key to helping stimulate the nation's economy.

Hispanic doctors and national, state and local decision-makers will meet for the 13th annual conference of NHMA, a nonprofit group based in Washington, DC, that represents Hispanic physicians in the U.S. The conference, "Building a Health Care Workforce for the Hispanic Community," is March 19-22 at New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge.

"Amid the worst unemployment in a generation, health care is a hot spot for jobs -- and it will grow hotter, especially as President Barack Obama's stimulus package will pump billions of dollars into the economy," said Dr. Elena Rios, NHMA's president and CEO.

Invited participants and speakers to NHMA's conference include Dr. Garth Graham, deputy assistant secretary, Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford, president, New York Academy of Medicine; New York State Health Commissioner Richard Daines; George Thibault, president, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, NY; Dr. Ciro Sumaya, dean, School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center; Nilsa Gutierrez, chief medical officer, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, NY; Javier Escobar, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ.

In February, employers reduced payrolls by 651,000 jobs. Meanwhile, 26,000 jobs were added nationwide in health care and education. Still, the nation's jobless rate rose to 8.1 percent in February. New York's unemployment rate rose from 7 percent in December to 7.6 pe
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