Thread: Email Congress: Health Care Bill Requires Free Translations

From ProEnglish:

Health Care Bill Requires Free Translation Services Take Action!

Strike Section 1221 (b) from H.R. 3200

Urgent alert! Please act now!

Health Care Reform legislation now pending in Congress would require doctors and hospitals to provide interpreters and translation services free of charge to non-English speaking patients.

That will add $billions to the cost of health care and give immigrants even less incentive to learn English.

The "America's Affordable Health Choices Act," H.R. 3200, Section 1221 (b) says Medicare health care providers that fail to "substantially provide language services to limited English proficient beneficiaries" face severe fines and penalties.

This is outrageous. Medicare is already bankrupt. Now medical providers also will have to provide free translation services.

Send a free email message to your congressional representatives and demand that they remove entitlements to language translation services from health care reform legislation!

Please "Take Action" now!
http://capwiz.com/proenglish/issues/ale ... 6&queueid=[capwiz:queue_id]

Received by email from mail@proenglish.org
Date: 8/18/2009 7:14:21 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time

I know Fla. hospitals already provide free translation services.
IMO, anyone that needs a translator, bring a friend or hire one. And if Spanish or Haitian-Creole isn't the language you speak, you are out of luck.