By Amanda Falcone
Record-Journal Photo Gallery staff
Photo Gallery

HARTFORD — Maria Serrano remembers when her parents used to pull her out of school because they had a doctor’s appointment and needed her to translate.

Years have gone by, but Serrano, now a case manager for the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, said those who speak little or no English still ask their children for help.

Non-English-speaking Medicaid patients were expecting to get assistance from interpreters soon, but funding for that service is now in jeopardy. Included in the budget for fiscal year 2008-09, which was passed by the General Assembly last year and signed by the governor, was $4.7 million for interpreters for Medicaid patients. This year, Gov. M. Jodi Rell is recommending that the money be eliminated, and many are upset.

“This is not an issue of a privilege,” said Fernando Betancourt, executive director of the state’s Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission. “This is a human right.”
Rep. Demetrios S. Giannaros, DFarmington, agreed.

“We have to stop dividing ourselves between those who were born here and those who weren’t,” he said.

Chris Cooper, the governor’s spokesman, said that Rell believes the $1.2 million allocated for interpreters for Medicaid patients this fiscal year should be enough to carry the program to July 1, 2009. The interpreter program has not been started yet, and the $1.2 million has not been spent.

“She believes the carry-forward money is enough to bring us through the next year of the budget,” Cooper said, adding that Rell would be willing to consider further funding the program in the future.

David Dearborn, spokesman for the state Department of Social Services said his department will move forward with the interpreter program. The department plans to stretch that money for as long as it can if it does not get additional money next fiscal year, he said.

The Connecticut Coalition for Medical Interpretation says about 22,000 Medicaid recipients have limited English proficiency and it reports that 65 languages are spoken by low-income residents with limited English proficiency in Connecticut.

Democratic lawmakers said they worked hard to get the $4.7 million for interpreters put into the budget for 2008-09, and were surprised to learn that they would have to fight to keep the money.

“I never would have expected to be here today,” said Sen. Jonathan A. Harris, D-West Hartford, at a press conference in the legislative office building Friday. “We are here because we are not giving up.”

Lawmakers said that investing in interpreters is about access to quality health care. It is important to have face-to-face communication with health care professionals, they said.

Locally, MidStateMedical Center in Meriden uses an interpreter service. MidStateCommunication Coordinator Pam Cretella said hospital staff uses the technology to set up conference calls among the patient, hospital and interpreter service. The service is available around the clock in 140 languages. Cretella could not say how often the service is used, but said it is used by mostly Spanish-speaking patients.

Getting interpreters in the medical field is just common sense, said House Majority Leader Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, adding that the state would get 50 percent reimbursement for the service because it is part of the Medicaid program.

Many, like Donovan, stress that having interpreters for patients is both cost effective and preventive, decreasing the odds of medical slipups.

“We should join together and demand that the money be reinstated,” Betancourt said.