Healthy state exchange will curb uncompensated care

PROACTIVE APPROACH: Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, CEO of Women's Care and of Latino Public Radio, would like to see Gov. Gina M. Raimondo's initiative on health care expand in 2016 and for more people to be able to buy into the state's health care exchange. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
PROACTIVE APPROACH: Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, CEO of Women's Care and of Latino Public Radio, would like to see Gov. Gina M. Raimondo's initiative on health care expand in 2016 and for more people to be able to buy into the state's health care exchange. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

(Corrected, Dec. 30, 11 a.m.)
Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, CEO of Women’s Care and of WRNI 1290 AM, Latino Public Radio, is a community leader and participant in many civic and charitable organizations. He is past chairman of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals in Washington and has been chairman of the Rhode Island Foundation. He led the effort for the $1.5 million capital campaign for Progreso Latino, the state’s leading social-service agency for new immigrants.

What is your view of 2015 in Rhode Island in terms of the state’s economic health?

Rhode Island has typically been the first one into a recession and the last one out. We’ve been expecting a surplus in tax revenue, but are still facing big deficits in the future, and I’m worried about that. We’re also facing increased social-services cuts, and with things like the expansion of Medicaid and our manufacturing jobs not growing, we need to retool the existing economy to respond to the new economy.

What do you see in 2016 in terms of Rhode Island’s economic health?

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The revamping and restructuring of the commerce department and trying to emphasize our strength as a tourist destination, which attracts millions of dollars annually. And also revamping the Small Business Administration loan program; instead of going for big home runs, we need to get a lot of hits. In the big scheme of things, small businesses create the majority of jobs in this country, so that’s the right emphasis.

And looking at the Route 195 land, hopefully a big anchor business or labs will come in and give us a bit of a boost. It’s all about “meds and ed,” hospitals and education, that’s where you have the most bang for your buck. Anchor businesses are where jobs are created, and the health care industry is the only one that sees growth in a recession. We have to do whatever possible to enhance that.

If you could, what one thing would you like to see happen in Rhode Island in 2016?

I’d love to see the expansion of the governor’s initiative on health and health insurance. We have to be smart about the duplication of resources, we need to reduce unneeded capacity and put our efforts into primary care and reproductive health care.

One thing I’d like to see, and I’m not sure the state can do this outside Obamacare, is allowing more people to buy into the health care exchange. It all has to do with a better-insured population. We will pay for emergency amputation but not allow that person to buy insurance to control their diabetes that can prevent the amputation. The more people we have in the exchange, the less uncompensated-care costs there are for hospitals.

How does Latino Public Radio help that segment of the state’s population?

We are the only daily source of news and information for the Latino community. There is no local paper in Spanish; there was one but it’s now just a website. The other stations are just shock-jock stations, all music, no education, very poor sources of local news. We are the leading, if not the only, provider that spends five or six hours a week increasing health literacy, encouraging civic participation, informing listeners about the political process and teaching politicians about the concerns of this emerging community. At most we have 75,000 listeners but if we were a regular station, we’d have the highest share; there are only about 150,000 Latinos in the state.

We provide a forum for community leaders, professors, doctors, lawyers [and] educators who join us in analyzing the news and events for our population. We even train medical students through our “Medical Apprentice” program, where students come in and present a topic, and I interview them, which teaches them how to address complex health issues.

How has the business climate for Latinos in the state changed?

Unfortunately, Rhode Island has the highest level of Latino joblessness in the country, about 20 percent compared to 6.9 percent nationally. Manufacturing jobs are going away and Latinos are twice as likely to work in those jobs. But there are a lot of small businesses and entrepreneurs here. A Federal Reserve Bank of Boston study asked why there were so many small businesses in this state, and showed that Providence’s Latino-owned businesses grew from 731 in 1997 to 2,999 in 2007. It’s been interesting to see how resilient this population is and if it had more support, would grow even more.

How has the state of women’s health care improved?

It’s been tremendous. With the creation of RIte Care, a Medicaid program that was revamped, maternal health has been tremendously improved. The rate of premature births is down and the space between pregnancies has increased, a great determinant in children’s overall health. •

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