June 2011
In this Issue
NEW MEDIA:
- Families USA has developed a first-of-its-kind Twitter tool that allows you to quickly and easily sign petitions to all your elected officials on Twitter. When signing this petition, advocates are sending a strong message to legislators: Americans support the Affordable Care Act and want their legislators to protect their new rights, not undermine them.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced approximately $40 million in funding to strengthen and better coordinate chronic disease prevention in state and territorial health departments. Created by the Affordable Care Act, this initiative targets the nation’s five leading chronic disease-related causes of death and disability: heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and arthritis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), housed under HHS, expects to award funds for three-year coordinated statewide chronic disease programs. As a critical requirement, successful grantees will create or update statewide plans that demonstrate coordinated approaches that address the leading causes of chronic disease deaths and their associated risk factors. State and territorial health departments interested in submitting proposals for the Prevention and Public Health Fund Coordinated Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Program can find more information at www.grants.gov. The application deadline is July 22, 2011.
PUBLICATIONS:
- The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights recently released an issue brief called Ryan Proposal to Block Grant Medicaid Would Disproportionately Impact Communities of Color. This brief examines how Medicaid beneficiaries of color, particularly seniors, children, and people with disabilities, would be affected if Medicaid’s funding was changed to a block grant. This paper shows that these individuals could lose coverage, have their benefits cut, and face high out-of-pocket costs.
- The Kaiser Family Foundation recently published Medicaid’s Role for Black Americans and Medicaid’s Role for Hispanic Americans. These fact sheets present data on Medicaid coverage and the program’s effect on access to care for these communities. They also examine how the recent recession and the coming expansion of Medicaid under health reform will affect enrollment in Medicaid among black and Hispanic Americans.
- The budget passed by House Republicans in April 2011 makes radical changes to Medicare and Medicaid. In response, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has prepared a district-level analysis of the potential effects of the GOP's legislation for all 435 congressional districts. The analysis includes information on the impact on seniors, people with disabilities, children, and pregnant women.
- Republicans are offering proposals that aim to cut Medicaid ranging from Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicaid cuts to “spending caps” or “global caps.” In response, Families USA developed an issue brief, Medicaid, the Budget, and Deficit Reduction: Keeping Score of the Threats, to discuss how advocates can fight proposals that would dismantle Medicaid. The brief provides advocates with messaging that highlights the significance of the cuts and explores the proposals and their effect on consumers.
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HHS Updates
HHS Announces Promotores de Salud Initiative
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the Promotores de Salud/Community Health Workers Initiative, which will promote the use of promotores to educate Latino communities on prevention and where and how to get health services. It will also develop a national program to recognize the work of promotores; develop a database of promotores networks, which will include information on their training and where they work; and foster cooperation among various networks. The project also aims to develop an English-Spanish website with information and resources to assist community workers and their networks.
HHS Issues New PCIP Regulations to Make the Program More Affordable
HHS has taken new steps to make it easier for Americans to enroll in the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) by reducing premiums. Premiums administered through Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans will drop as much as 40 percent in 18 states, and improved eligibility standards in 23 states and the District of Columbia will help ensure that more Americans with pre-existing conditions have access to affordable health insurance. To read more about the specific changes in eligibility standards and premiums, click here. To learn more about the PCIP program, click here or call 1-866-717-5826.
HHS Announces Initiative to Improve Care Coordination for Medicare Beneficiaries
HHS announced the Federally Qualified Health Center Advanced Primary Care Practice (FQHC APCP), a new demonstration project that aims to improve care and lower costs for Medicare patients. This new Affordable Care Act initiative will pay an estimated $42 million over three years to up to 500 federally qualified health centers to better coordinate care. The demonstration project will test the effectiveness of doctors and other health professionals working in teams to improve care for nearly 200,000 Medicare beneficiaries. Applications for the project will be accepted from June 6, 2011 through August 12, 2011, and the demonstration will be conducted September 1, 2011 through August 31, 2014. Details about the demonstration and the application process can be found here.
Health Access Coalition
The Health Access Coalition is housed within the North Carolina Justice Center, the state’s leading progressive advocacy and research organization. The Health Access Coalition’s primary goal is to expand publicly funded health services for low- and moderate-income families through advocacy. Adam Searing serves as executive director of the Health Access Coalition, which conducts research and analyzes the state’s health care system, helps people get access to public health programs, and educates community groups about health care options. And, when the Affordable Care Act passed, the Coalition began to focus efforts on educating North Carolinians about the many benefits of the law.
Adam Searing notes that their coalition tries to integrate diversity in all aspects of their work and leadership. The Coalition believes that it is a priority to reach people of color because they experience greater disparities in health and will benefit enormously from the Affordable Care Act. The Health Access Coalition has focused heavily on the African American community in the state but continuously strives to reach other ethnic groups. To educate African Americans about the benefits of health reform, the Health Access Coalition has tapped into the faith community, particularly churches. Using connections with pastors who sit on their health coalition board and the Council of Churches, Adam Linker, policy analyst for the coalition, has given presentations in churches across the state with a focus on the central and southeastern parts of the state. During the health reform debate and the law’s initial passage, the Health Access Coalition hosted many forums at churches and in partnership with churches to teach communities about the benefits of the law and how African Americans in North Carolina specifically benefit.
Now, with the misinformation surrounding the Affordable Care Act, Linker wants to reignite education efforts in the faith community, particularly with African Americans. He has returned to working with the Council of Churches and local area pastors to connect ministers and clergy who are interested in health justice and the new law. At present, Linker is doing presentations on the current status of health reform that discuss everything from exchange implementation to threats to the law; he believes that these conversations have helped spark engagement among the African American community and some influential community leaders, like pastors, have become spokespeople in defense of the law.
Adam Searing, executive director of the Coalition, continues to build on Linker’s public education efforts to make the health reform law more relatable. Searing has embarked on a film initiative to collect video testimonials of North Carolinians’ health stories. This project has not only increased his organization’s story bank capacity, but has served as a public education and media tool. Searing says that the diversity of stories and people in the film allows it to resonate with many audiences. Searing believes that these videos help ordinary people become health care advocates. The consumer stories have garnered media attention and are used at lobby days to hold policy makers and state leaders accountable. Due to the success of Searing’s project, he was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson grant to develop a training manual and offer tutorials to state advocates about building capacity in film production.
Adam Searing and Adam Linker believe they are making much headway in promoting and explaining the benefits of the Affordable Care Act to diverse audiences using their two-pronged approach. To be highly effective in their state, they continuously reflect on ways to strengthen their capacity for public education work with key demographics, like communities of color. With the current controversy surrounding the health reform law, they believe it is essential to keep North Carolinians informed of the huge losses these communities could face if health reform were repealed or Medicaid was cut.
For more information, please contact Adam Searing at adam@ncjustice.org or Adam Linker at adam.linker@ncjustice.org.
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- American Public Health Association Mid-Year Meeting—Implementing Health Reform: A Public Health Approach
June 23-25, 2011
Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, 301 East North Water Street, Chicago, IL 60611
Sponsor: American Public Health Association
For more information and to register, click here.
- 2011 NCLR Annual Conference: Embrace Now
July 23-26, 2011
Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel and Omni Sheraton Hotel, Washington, DC 20008
Sponsor: National Council of La Raza
For more information and to register, click here.
- 102nd NAACP Annual Convention
July 23-28, 2011
Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015
Sponsor: NAACP
For more information and to register, click here.
- 6th Annual Many Faces of Community Health Conference
October 27-28, 2011
Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America, 3800 American Blvd East, Bloomington, MN 55425
Sponsor: Many Faces of Community Health
For more information and to register, click here.
Requests for Local Publications
Here
at Families USA, we believe that public education is essential to
gaining support for health reform. We are asking that you help us in our
efforts to educate the public about the benefits of the Affordable Care
Act by informing us of local, state, and even national newspapers that
serve your community. We are especially interested in outlets that reach
various racial and ethnic groups and senior citizens. If you have any
questions or would like to submit publications, please contact the Health Equity Department at Families USA at healthequity@familiesusa.org.
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We’d like to hear from you!
If you would like to see your organization or event
highlighted in a future edition of our newsletter, please send us a
brief description of your organization and its activities, as well as
your contact information. We also welcome guest authors for
the Activities in the Field section of the newsletter. This section
provides members of the minority health field with the opportunity to
share their experiences and insights with other advocates. Please send
all correspondence to: healthequity@familiesusa.org.
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