| The latest news from and for state health care advocates |
March 2011 |
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In each edition, we'll feature an action, victory, campaign, or interesting tactic shared by a state advocate. Send us your updates. |
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In This Issue:
Buzz around the States
New Jersey Policy Perspective released a new report, Good Medicine: The Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on New Jersey’s Working Families with Children.
Small Business Majority partnered with state-based organizations to host roundtables across the country this week.
Michigan Consumers for Healthcare Advancement celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act with a series of cake-related events across the state!
The Center for Public Policy Priorities explains Why Texas Should not Jump into an Interstate Healthcare Compact.
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States in Focus
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The first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act not only provided an excellent opportunity to get the media talking about the benefits of reform, but it also provided a reason to educate small business owners about what is in the law for them.
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March 23 marks the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). To celebrate this tremendous milestone, groups across the country participated in a week of events—each day devoted to a group who is benefitting from the health reform law. This month’s health beat focuses on tactics and organizing tips for each of these groups.
Organizing Small Business: Tap their Networks
Frank Knapp, Jr. is CEO and president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, which has provided an avenue for small businesses to network and promote themselves since 2000. The chamber addresses major issues affecting small businesses throughout the state. Frank says the chamber’s events have led to camaraderie among small businesses owners, and the chamber has become a trusted messenger for small businesses throughout the state.
Discussions at the chamber’s events have often revealed the true needs of small business owners. In South Carolina, it has become clear that many small business owners continue to be concerned with the difficulty of providing health insurance for employees. Most are still unaware of tax credits available under the health care law to ease that burden. To solve this problem, Frank planned a series of public education events for small business owners in the state around the Affordable Care Act’s one-year anniversary. As small business owners better understand the benefits for them in the health care law, the likelihood of local business owners becoming supporters and advocates of the law increases.
Organizing Seniors: Moving the Dial
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Reaching seniors with the truth about the health care law can be a challenge, but recent polls are showing a shift in opinion. Go to them and be prepared to answer specific questions.
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Seeing benefits in the Affordable Care Act has been a challenge for seniors across the country. During the debate to pass the health care law, seniors heard a lot of misinformation from opponents of the law. Although combating these messages is challenging, public opinion among seniors is beginning to change. Last week, Kaiser Family Foundation released their latest tracking poll, which revealed increased support among seniors for the health law. This past month, unfavorable views of the law decreased by 7 percentage points and favorable views increased 8 percentage points. See the full report here: http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/8166.cfm.
This change is only the beginning. With an array of different policies in the law, it can become difficult to generalize about Medicare as a whole when speaking the people over 65. However, there have been real tangible benefits already in effect for seniors, such as Medicare doughnut hole rebate checks and free preventive services in Medicare. Advocates have found that stopping by local senior centers, senior living communities, and social clubs is the best way to reach seniors and spread the message about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.
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Happy Birthday Affordable Care Act: Use Video Stories to Get Your Message Out
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Video testimonials are an excellent way to disseminate information about health reform’s earliest benefits. By working with coalitions and unlikely partners in remote regions of your state, you can build a library of testimonials to use with the media, post online, or show at future forums.
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Over the past year, we have discovered that showing how the law benefits real people moves public opinion. Adam Searing, project director at the North Carolina Justice Center, has mastered the art of story collection. To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, Adam shared consumer video testimonials over five days—many highlighting people with pre-existing conditions who are now benefiting from health reform’s consumer protections.
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To find consumer stories, Adam works with a variety of allies across the state, including many local disability groups and community health centers. When speaking at community forums, many of which are co-hosted with local partners, he makes it a priority to talk with as many attendees as possible and comes prepared with video equipment to record testimonials. Adam explained, “By asking consumers, then and there, to take action I don’t let a great opportunity pass by and can easily collect multiple videos.” Because he is always prepared to collect a story, Adam is able to have a wealth of stories on hand when he needs them for the media or special projects.
Organizing Women: Use a Women’s Health Agenda
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Women deserve to be a focus of health reform and implementation efforts. By framing health reform in the context of a broader agenda and then honing in on the issues are most important to women, this coalition was able to broaden its reach among women and women’s organizations.
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Across the country, women struggle to make sure their families have the health care they need. Whether it’s finding their asthmatic child affordable coverage, worrying about their recent college graduate finding a job with benefits, or staying up late into the night scrutinizing the fine print of medical bills, women play a main role in their family’s health care.
In 2006, women from a wide range of organizations and communities formed the Maryland Women’s Coalition for Health Care Reform. The coalition works with local leaders and partner organizations, including a network of 15 county-level commissions on women, the League of Women Voters, and Advocates for Children and Youth, to advance the voice of women in the reform and implementation debate.
In order to reach out to women, the coalition frames health reform as part of a series of policies to improve the wellness of women in the state. Leni Preston, chair of the coalition, added, “Through community forums and conference calls, we’ve learned that the new consumer protections provided by the new law are the most popular with women.” The coalition uses these provisions as a selling point to build support among women for the law. Featuring popular aspects of the law and also including discussion of a broader women’s wellness has enabled the coalition to draw in many organizations and women to the coalition.
In the coming year, the coalition hopes to develop its members’ leadership ability by finding local captains in key areas of the state who can increase the coalition’s reach across Maryland and at the state capitol.
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Organizing Young Adults: Create Campus Chapters
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Student chapters are a great way to get young adults engaged in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Getting young adults involved in your organization can plant the seed for long-term commitment.
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Brian Johns, organizing director for Virginia Organizing (VO), says that their campus chapter program has led to much success organizing young people. Virginia Organizing first launched their campus chapters during a living wage campaign several years ago and has created a successful model for reaching young adults. Currently, they have volunteer chapters on six campuses across the state with several more forming. They reach both two- and four-year institutions.
Although there are no paid positions on campuses, they have one organizer who devotes half of his or her time to managing the campus chapters. Brian notes that the key to successful campus organizing is constant leadership development. He claims that by continually focusing on developing students as leaders, the campus chapters have been able to maintain commitments from students for their entire four years on campus. It is also important to find issues that resonate with youth and engage faculty on campus who can play an active role in the chapter. These elements have helped Virginia Organizing campus chapters to flourish in recent years.
Brian says that students become engaged because the Virginia Organizing chapters help them make connections between the campus and the outside community. And Brian says that the majority of student volunteers stay active in local chapters post-graduation.
Beat of the Month
A classic birthday song: Birthday by the Beatles.
Advocate Tip: Tweet It
There is no denying that Twitter is hot right now. Not only are people using the site to spread news online, but many TV news outlets feature stories with issues that are popular on Twitter. Use Twitter to increase your following online and get your message out. You can start a petition on Twitter using the Act.ly website to bring your issue to the attention of elected officials.
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New Resources from Families USA and Stand Up for Health Care
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