The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of LCCR, was a featured speaker at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 2009 Annual Conference yesterday.

In his speech, Henderson explained why health care is a pressing civil and human rights issue, emphasizing the racial and economic disparities in health care.  He also talked about the role federal health care legislation can play in expanding access to health care, legislation that the civil rights community is currently working to get Congress to pass.

"When people lack access to quality and affordable healthcare, a medical emergency can bankrupt a family. As long as families face this danger, they have no economic security. Without access to quality and affordable healthcare, chronic medical problems can prevent a worker from changing or keeping jobs and advancing at work, which destroys equal employment opportunity. Without access to quality and affordable health care, poor health can keep a child out of school, which denies that child educational opportunity," said Henderson.  "[A]ccess to health care – and the federal policies that affect it – are woven into the fabric of civil rights, economic empowerment, and social justice."