Care for the Hispanic poor: a growing segment of American society

Abstract

AMERICA'S new minority group is coming of age: the Hispanic. Surges in Hispanic birth rates and legal and illegal immigration make this growing component of American society a population to be reckoned with. Hispanics totaled 21 million Americans in 1987 (7.9% of the US population).1The Hispanic population is expected to increase 40% by the year 2000 (to almost 30 million people). Birth rates for Hispanics are three to four times that of the non-Hispanic white population. Most of us in health care see a lot of this new "poor" American in our clinics and emergency departments, sick and Spanish speaking. Hispanics, with a median age of 23 years, are younger than the US population as a whole. Hispanics (on average) are poor. About 30% of all Hispanic families are living below the poverty level compared with 15% of the total US population. One of every five Hispanic adults,