Iowa Advocates Use CHIPRA as Model for Expanding State Coverage

Carrie Fitzgerald, Senior Health Policy Associate at the Child and Family Center, can finally take a deep breath. After a long legislative session, the Iowa legislature has passed an important health care expansion for kids. Senate File 389 builds on a 2008 health care reform bill to expand coverage in public programs for kids in families with incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($66,150 for a family of four in 2009). This expansion is expected to cover 30,000 of the state’s 40,000 uninsured children. Carrie credits developments on the national scene, particularly the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in February, with the goodwill she faced on both sides of the aisle.

Iowa advocates used the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) as a foundation for their own bill to expand health care to more children and other reforms. Although this bill could have fallen through the cracks, it was bolstered by the strong support for the children’s health care component. Lawmakers even went so far as to use language directly from CHIPRA in their own bill. This served as a clear connection between the two bills, and as a result, the Iowa bill garnered broad support. Expanding coverage to kids was a bright light in a legislative session plagued by cuts.

The bill was supported by a strong coalition including the Child and Family Center, AARP, ACS CAN, Iowa Public Health Association, the Iowa Caregiver's Association, and Iowa Citizen Action Network. In addition to coverage expansions, S.F. 389 also eases enrollment and continuation practices and requirements, allows coverage of legal permanent resident children, and creates a dental-only option in CHIP. The bill also includes the creation of a commission that will consider allowing small business, nonprofits, cities, counties, schools, and community colleges to buy into the state’s health insurance plans.

New Jersey Finds the Key Ingredients for a Successful Town Hall

New Jersey Citizen Action was one of many groups to put on a town hall meeting in April. Despite poor weather conditions, the event had more than 150 attendees. So what made this town hall so successful? Eve Weissman, the Health Care Campaign Coordinator with New Jersey Citizen Action, claims it was a combination of a strong coalition, the right speakers, and looking to the right partners to help with turnout. Eve also credited the success to the efforts of her strong coalition partners across the state—such as Planned Parenthood, SEIU, and BlueWaveNJ—that helped organize the event, as well as the momentum that has been building around health care reform.

Citizen Action’s aim is to mobilize and energize people to send a message to members of Congress that passing health care reform this year with a public plan option is vital to the health of the state and the nation. Speakers at the event were effective messengers and represented many key stakeholders in health reform. Featured speakers included Congressman Frank Pallone, Chair of the Health Subcommittee in the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Richard Kirsch, Campaign Manager for Health Care for America Now; a health care provider, a small business owner, a representative from AARP, and a labor leader. Iowa residents also had the opportunity to share their health care stories.
 
These events were a part of the massive grassroots campaign launched by Health Care for America Now. Other successful town halls took place in Ohio, Connecticut, and New York.

A New Wave of Activists: How Two Groups Successfully Engaged Obama Volunteers

The 2008 presidential election introduced unprecedented numbers of new and dedicated volunteers to political activism through the Obama campaign. The volunteers were of all ages and from a variety of different backgrounds, but they all shared one commonality—the passion for change. Unlike volunteers for past presidential campaigns, these new volunteers have not just shown up for the election and then disappeared. Instead, many continue to be activists. Some have formed new groups, others maintain social networks—all over the country these new activists are ready to do anything they can to help the President see his agenda through to the end.

In New Jersey, Eve Weissman explained that the large turnout to her town hall was due in part to collaboration with groups that emerged from the Obama campaign. Citizen Action built a relationship with these groups by offering health care trainings to update them on the health care reform battle and train them to be activists on the issue. Eve reports that the groups who took her trainings have been invaluable allies in her health care organizing. She urges other state groups to take advantage of these networks if they haven’t already!

Similar trainings occurred in New York organized by the Citizen Action group there. Organizers held more general “community organizer trainings” to empower Obama-inspired volunteers to follow in his footsteps as organizers and activists. Diana Cihak, Citizen Action of New York organizer claims that the volunteers who went through the trainings have become her most committed leaders on a multitude of issues.

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