Advocacy Tools: Other Tools
From the Alliance for Health:
Covering Health Issues: A Sourcebook for Journalists will be offered online chapter by chapter and will cover a wide variety of health policy topics, including health reform, health care costs, and individual and employer-sponsored coverage. These chapters include background information, facts on each topic, story ideas for reporters, discussions of the likely policy debates, and a list of sources for public opinion polls on health issues. It is written with reporters in mind, but it is also a useful resource for anyone looking for concise information on health policy issues. (March 2009)
From the American Public Health Association:
The Health Disparities Projects and Interventions database details projects and interventions that address health disparity challenges in our communities. These interventions have been reported by a wide range of groups from across the country, including City and State Departments of Public Health, non-profits, and academic think tanks. (March 2004)
From The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law:
Information Hotline Numbers access Medicaid eligibility rules in each state. Scroll half way down the page to find the chart of state hotline numbers.
From the Center for Health Care Strategies
From Policy to Action: Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities at the Ground-Level outlines practical strategies that states and Medicaid programs are implementing to reduce disparities in health care. These strategies include:
- Collecting more information on the race and ethnicity of enrollees,
- Incorporating disparities reduction goals into health plan provider contracts,
- Linking monetary incentives to reducing disparities in health care,
- Analyzing utilization and performance data by race and ethnicity, and
- Increasing access to culturally and linguistically appropriate care.
(August 2007)
From the Center for Medicare Education:
The learning capacity of older adults has direct, practical implications for professionals trying to educate older people and their families about health care services and benefits, especially the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. How Seniors Learn discusses how older people learn and offers tips for adapting educational programs and materials to build on clients' cognitive strengths and compensate for some of the losses that can occur with aging. (Winter 2003)
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Introduction to the Federal Budget explains the basics of the annual federal budget process and how that process affects the development of tax and spending legislation. It covers the President's budget request; the congressional budget resolution; how the terms of the budget resolution--and the limits it sets on spending and tax cuts--are enforced on the House and Senate floor; and budget reconciliation, a special procedure used in some years to facilitate the passage of spending and tax legislation. (March 2003)
From the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI)
CAHMI has launched the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health, which provides national, state, and regional data on children’s health care. The site allows users to view state profiles and search the National Survey of Children’s Health and the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs. (September 2006)
From the Children's Defense Fund:
The Children's Mental Health Resource Kit: Promoting Children's Mental Health Screens and Assessments is designed to help promote access to and increase the availability of mental health screening and assessments for children through Medicaid and SCHIP (the State Children's Health Insurance Programs). The kit can help advocates gather information specific to their states, and it includes action strategies and a resources guide. (January 2004)
From the Commonwealth Fund:
Given the strong correlation worldwide between low income and poor health, it is especially critical for people with limited incomes to have ready access to medical care. The U.S. Health Care Divide: Disparities in Primary Care Experiences by Income reveals that in most other countries, low-income patients are better off in comparison to their richer counterparts in the U.S. (April 2006)
From Community Catalyst:
A Guide to Organizing Community Forums was compiled to provide individuals and consumer groups with sets of guiding questions to organize more effective community forums. The guiding questions deal with several general concerns that arise when planning a forum, and each section includes brief checklists that should prove helpful during the different stages of forum organizing efforts. (July 2002)
From the Connecticut Health Policy Project:
The Connecticut Health Policy Project's Health Advocacy Toolbox was designed for beginning advocates who want to improve the health care policies that affect them and their families. While written with Connecticut advocates in mind, the Tool Box provides guidance on navigating the legislative process, administrative advocacy, and changing public opinion that any advocate can use. It also provides guidance on finding and using data and effective communications. (Fall 2002)
From Consumers United for Evidence-Based Health Care:
Consumer Involvement in Guideline Development: Why and How to Participate
is a video that explains the process of developing clinical practice
guidelines and the need for educated consumers to serve on clinical
practice guideline panels. In March 2011, the Institute of Medicine
released its report, "Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust."
Standard 3 of this report outlines the expectations for consumer
involvement. (March 2011)
From the Health Assistance Partnership:
Assistance for Health Care Consumers: Key Provisions of State Laws This report includes tables that serve as an index of some key provisions in state consumer health assistance laws. These provisions include the populations that the programs serve, which program components the laws address, where these programs are housed, and more. (January 2005)
Health privacy regulations that dictate when a person has a right to obtain his or her medical records and other health information and when health plans and other health care entities can share protected information went into effect on April 14, 2003. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Regulations: Questions and Answers for Consumer Health Assistance Programs guides consumer health assistance (ombudsman) programs through their rights and responsibilities under these HIPAA privacy regulations. (May 2003)
From the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured:
Resources on Children and Family Health Coverage provides the information released in a policy briefing on state coverage trends for children and families. These policy reports include:
- “Enrolling Children in Medicaid and SCHIP: Insights from Focus Groups with Low-Income Parents”
- “SCHIP Turns 10: An Update on Enrollment and the Outlook on Reauthorization from the Program’s Directors”
- “Family Coverage under SCHIP Waivers”
- “Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care for Low-Income Non-Citizen Children”
(May 2007)
Medicaid Matters: Hearing from Families is a video that profiles five families who have children covered under Medicaid. These families reflect the diverse people who are helped by Medicaid-families from all over the country of varying races, ages, and sizes. Each family also illustrates a particular health care need and shows how Medicaid assisted the family in obtaining necessary health care services. (January 2004)
From KaiserEDU.org:
Medicare Advantage: The Role of Private Health Plans in Medicare reviews the basics of Medicare Advantage and the different types of Medicare Advantage plans available. This tutorial presents trends in Medicare Advantage plan participation and enrollment, as well as characteristics of Medicare Advantage enrollees and a discussion of the impact that Medicare Advantage has had on traditional Medicare. (July 2007)
A new tutorial entitled Private Health Insurance 101 provides an overview of the private health insurance system. The tutorial outlines basic concepts, including risk spreading, risk selection, and regulation. It also discusses eligibility, coverage, and costs for consumers. (August 2006)
The National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) recently hosted the Medicare Academy for interns and students of public policy. The presentations are available through webcasts and include discussions of current policy issues in Medicare, the financial future of the program, and the new prescription drug benefit. (July 2006)
Smart Links allows students, faculty, and researchers to easily investigate health policy issues by providing one-click access to “pre-queried” searches from multiple search engines on a range of health policy topics. The results appear in a one-page, easy-to-read format and cover peer-reviewed research, policy analysis, government documents, and news reports. (May 2006)
Developed by the Kaiser Family Foundation, kaiserEDU gives health policy students and faculty easy access to data, literature, news, and developments regarding major health policy topics and debates. While kaiserEDU.org is targeted to the academic community, it provides a wealth of information that can be used as an integral part of an educational program, as an additional source for independent research, or as background material for a variety of audiences. (March 2004)
From the Kaiser Family Foundation:
Medicare Quiz
offers an opportunity to test your knowledge of Medicare and provides a
brief discussion of the correct answers. It is a great interactive tool
for educating people about the program. (February 2012)
National Health Insurance – A Brief History of Reform Efforts in the U.S. provides an overview of health reform efforts over the last century, from New Deal-era calls for subsidized health coverage to the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. The brief is part of a new section on Kaiser’s Web site that includes information on research, analysis, public opinion polling data, and other topics related to health reform. (March 2009)
Talking about Medicare: Your Guide to Understanding the Program is designed to help beneficiaries and their families think through basic health care issues. It also provides information on how the Part D drug program works, how to choose a drug plan that meets beneficiary needs, and how low-income enrollees can get additional help with drug costs. (April 2006)
African Americans and the New Medicare Drug Benefit: These materials include a slide show on how the new benefit will affect African Americans, as well as a chart pack with statistics on African Americans, Latinos, and whites with Medicare. These resources highlight potential implications for outreach efforts under the new Medicare drug benefit. (November 14, 2005)
The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act Implementation Timeline presents important dates and deadlines for key implementation activities related to the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. (March 2005)
The Medicare Health Plan Tracker is an interactive tool that provides basic information about Medicare Advantage (Medicare HMO and other private) plans. Data include plan participation and beneficiary enrollment at the national, state, and county levels, as well as payment rates for 2005 and previous years. (January 2005)
Understanding the Health-Care Needs and Experiences of People with Disabilities: Findings from a 2003 Survey, which included people with permanent mental and/or physical disabilities, explores their health-care experiences and challenges in accessing and paying for care. Additional resources, including a video of people with disabilities discussing their health care challenges, are also available online. (December 2003)
From The Kaiser Family Foundation and Consumers Union:
How Private Insurance Works: A Primer begins by defining private health coverage. It goes on to examine the structure and operation of private health insurance, including the types of organizations that provide it, how managed care is delivered, and how risk pools and underwriting work. It also describes how private health insurance coverage is regulated under federal and state laws, and it explains how the current nature of private insurance relates to key issues facing federal and state policymakers. (April 2002)
From the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Affairs:
Outlook for Health Spending, the first report resulting from a continuing Health Affairs and Kaiser Family Foundation partnership, has leading health policy experts examining new projections of future health care spending, including implications of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. This partnership will publish a series of Web exclusives to speed dissemination of critical health care data. Web casts and related links are part of the package. (February 2004)
From Kaisernetwork.org:
Kaiser Health Disparities Report: A Weekly Look at Race, Ethnicity and Health is a new resource available through a free weekly e-mail. It summarizes and synthesizes news coverage of minority health issues and highlights studies, initiatives, and journal articles that generally do not receive mainstream news coverage. It also provides a calendar of upcoming events related to health disparities. (January 2007)
From the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute:
MassHealth, which includes the state's Medicaid program and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), provides health coverage to over 900,000 people representing over 15 percent of state residents. MassHealth Advocacy Guide: An Advocate's Guide to the Massachusetts Medicaid Program provides a thorough description of the program's eligibility requirements, covered services, premiums, and cost-sharing. (2004)
From Mathematica:
Assessment of State Capacity to Identify and Track Disparities in the Leading Health Indicators provides state-specific information on health assessments, a leading indicator of the progress in achieving public health goals. Findings show that states typically keep their data readily available but that data for some specific health objectives and age groups are not available for every state. (December 2007)
From Murphy's Unofficial Medicaid Page:
A table of federal Medicaid matching rates for each state. Medicaid expenditures for services are paid from state funds (referred to as state share) and from federal matching dollars. The formula used to determine the federal matching rate for any given state is based primarily on its median income level in relation to that for the nation, so that in theory, states with a larger population at low income levels will get a higher federal match than states with a smaller proportion of low income individuals. for each state. Medicaid expenditures for services are paid from state funds (referred to as state share) and from federal matching dollars. The formula used to determine the federal matching rate for any given state is based primarily on its median income level in relation to that for the nation, so that in theory, states with a larger population at low income levels will get a higher federal match than states with a smaller proportion of low income individuals.
From the National Academy of Social Insurance
A New Strategy to Combat Racial Inequality in American Health Care Delivery addresses indisputable evidence of racial inequality in American health care. The author proposes a new strategy to combat discrimination using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. (August 2006)
From The National Health Law Program (NHeLP):
HealthCareCoach.com provides health care consumers with up-to-date information on everything from insurance coverage to patient care. The Web site includes do-it-yourself tips, informative articles, and links to additional web resources.
The National Health Law Program (NHeLP) has created a page on their Web site-Waiver Watch-devoted to monitoring Medicaid and SCHIP waiver requests, including HIFA waivers. The first item posted on the site is a link to the waiver request that Washington state recently submitted to CMS. Future postings will include other waiver requests, analyzes of the waiver process in general and of particular waivers, and materials produced by state advocates that may prove useful in analyzing and addressing waiver requests. (November 2001)
From UHCAN!:
Links to various state organizations along with updates on what local activists are doing, lessons learned and announcements of upcoming events.
From the Urban Institute:
Assessing The New Federalism State Reports: These reports track the delivery of health and social services to low-income residents of 13 states following changes in welfare law.
Many low-income adults have a health problem or impairment that limits their ability to participate in social activities, including work. A Health-Conscious Safety Net? Health Problems and Program Use among Low-Income Adults with Disabilities examines the employment and program participation patterns of low-income adults with disabilities and how well the current safety net meets their needs. It also compares low-income adults with and without disabilities across employment, program participation, and income status. (September 2004)
The Policy Decoder is a glossary of terms used in local and national policy debates. This glossary is a work in progress and will be updated and expanded periodically. (August 2003)
Safety Net or Tangled Web? An Overview of Programs and Services for Adults with Disabilities begins by providing background information on the prevalence of health conditions in the low-income population and the economic problems faced by adults with disabilities. It goes on to describe 15 major public programs that serve low-income, non-elderly adults with disabilities. The paper also discuss promising policy options that take a more coordinated approach to serving the complex needs of adults with disabilities. (November 2003)
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