| The latest news from and for state health care advocates |
December 2009 |
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In This Issue:
Buzz around the States
Connecticut advocates pray for Lieberman to do the right thing.
New Jersey and New York unite to make their holiday wish for affordability in health reform at an event on Friday, December 18.
New Hampshire holds a series of federal reform briefings to educate the community about various aspects of reform.
The Tennessee Health Care Campaign plans a 24-hour event to “filibuster for reform” outside their Senators’ offices.
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States in Focus
West Virginia Report Shows Big Savings under Health Reform
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Reports are a useful way to attract media attention. You can collaborate with strange bedfellows to be effective across multiple constituencies and get more people interested and invested in the issue. Try taking a different angle, if you aren’t getting the results you want. For example, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care used this report to make the financial case for a moral issue.
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As health care reform moves through Congress, some states have expressed concern about their ability to afford the coverage expansions being proposed. Advocates in West Virginia recently released a study showing just the opposite. Currently, the Medicaid eligibility level in West Virginia is only 35 percent of the federal poverty level: With reform’s substantial Medicaid expansion, West Virginia residents stand to gain tremendously. To prove this, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care (WVAHC), the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the state medical association commissioned an actuarial study based on pooled claims data from several insurers in the state. The groups hired a respected health care actuary firm, CCRC Actuaries.
They found that the adoption of a Medicaid expansion up to 100 percent FPL, coupled with an individual and an employer mandate, will reduce total health care expenditures by $2.2 billion. The study also found that the savings for expanding Medicaid coupled with only the individual mandate is a reduction of $1.6 billion for consumers. These savings are huge for West Virginia.
Perry Bryant, Executive Director of WVAHC, stated that the results affirmed for the groups that commissioned the report that without federal reforms it will be very expensive and virtually impossible for West Virginia to achieve health care reform. However, with the proposed federal reforms, savings to West Virginia are very impressive.
The report was front page news in West Virginia when it was released, and it generated a lot of positive media for health reform throughout the state. You can read the actuarial report here and view the WVAHC PowerPoint explaining it here.
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Seniors’ issues have become a battleground for health reform. This new coalition seeks to cut through the lies and misinformation by letting seniors talk to each other and educate one another about reform. If you are not aware of the coalition in your community, get connected now through their Web site: www.seniorstoseniors.org.
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Seniors Get Real on Reform
Over the last several months, Medicare has assumed a major role in the health reform debate. Opponents of reform have made many dishonest claims about how the legislation moving through Congress will affect seniors and people with disabilities. In an effort to get the truth out about how health care reform affects seniors, a new coalition has emerged called Seniors to Seniors. There are many groups involved in the coalition, including groups representing older populations, labor unions, providers, and consumer groups. This wide variety of groups is committed to helping seniors learn the facts about the health reform legislation being proposed in Congress.
Seniors to Seniors, which is made up of national organizations, has started to take root in individual states. One of their top priorities is to make sure seniors understand the current health legislation, and they plan to accomplish that through several mechanisms. Their Web site contains several videos with messages about seniors and from seniors. Check them out here. While much of the campaign has been online so far, there are currently there are plans to hold several educational forums in key states over the next month.
The first of these forums took place in North Dakota on December 18. Several coalition members had representatives at the event, and the forum allowed seniors to get their questions answered about reform. After brief presentations and a short movie, presenters joined seniors for lunch to answer questions in a smaller setting. Other forums are in the works in Connecticut, Arkansas, Nebraska, and Louisiana.
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The holiday season is the perfect time to ask your contributors to support your work and the people you help. Especially in a year like this one, when other sources of funding are lower than usual, now is the time to appeal to people’s seasonal giving spirit. You can do so, by using creative online giving tools that allow people to holiday shop and donate at the same time!
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’Tis the Season of Giving
This time of year is known as the season of giving, and many advocacy groups use it as an opportunity to help the people they serve and to try to increase the donations they receive. The economic recession has hit the nonprofits hard: Foundations are hurting, people are less inclined to give, and regular sources of funding are unreliable. So this year, more than ever, getting creative around the holidays has become an important fundraising strategy.
Groups across the country have come up with creative techniques to make the most of the holidays and year-end giving. For example, Citizen Action of New York offers you a way to shop online from your favorite stores, donate to a great organization, and save money at the same time with IGive. Human Services Coalition of Dade County in Florida held an online auction for people to shop for unique holiday gifts and support a good cause at the same time! Other groups use this time to appeal to people’s sense of giving back at the end of the year. The Children’s Action Alliance in Arizona put children as the face of their giving campaign and offered a match for every 50 cents donated. Health Care for All in Massachusetts and New Jersey Citizen Action both touted their organization’s accomplishments in 2009 when they asked for an end of the year donation.
However organizations choose to do it, through social media and other online advocacy techniques or reverting back to the one-on-one meetings, this is a good time of year to increase small and large donations.
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With the craziness of the holidays and health reform, take some time and send your member of Congress a holiday card. Whether they have been naughty, and you are urging them to support reform, or nice, and you are thanking them for some hard work, a holiday card can make a difference. It is also a great way to get volunteers, who are already in the holiday spirit, to contact their members of Congress. Check out an online holiday card campaign from Faithful Reform in Health Care here.
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New Resources from Families USA and Stand Up for Health Care
Contributing authors: Mark Fisher, Lydia Gottesfeld
What would you like to see in the State Health Beat? Contact Lydia Gottesfeld to share your thoughts and opinions.
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