
Eleanor Cashmore
Host: Greater Boston Legal Services
Sponsor: Biogen, Foley Hoag LLP
Katherine improved health outcomes and increased access to health insurance throughout immigrant communities in NYC, particularly in East Harlem, by providing legal services, education, and advocacy.
Despite New York’s expanded access to health care for low-income and immigrants and their families, these communities nonetheless maintain huge disparities in health outcomes, life expectancy, and well-being compared to other New Yorkers. For instance, a quarter of the East Harlem population lacks health insurance, resulting in poor neighborhood health outcomes. Health insurance is complex and the intersection of insurance and immigration status even more so. Many immigrants also face substantial cultural and language barriers. Patient and provider misunderstandings about consumer rights, as well as a dearth of legal representation enforcing such rights, contribute to medical debt and bankruptcies.
During the two-year Fellowship period, Katherine:
Katherine is now a staff attorney at Health Law Advocates developing a new medical-legal partnership for immigrants. The services provided focus on the complex intersection of Medicaid eligibility and immigration status. She also supervises an Equal Justice Works Fellow who is working on the partnership.
Host: Greater Boston Legal Services
Sponsor: Biogen, Foley Hoag LLP
Host: Legal Services of Southern Piedmont
Sponsor: Boston Scientific Corporation, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.
Host: National Women's Law Center
Sponsor: Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Host: Welfare Law Center
Sponsor: Debevoise & Plimpton LLP