Efforts to Promote Affordable, Quality Health Care for All

National Efforts

UHCAN Ohio played an active role in advocacy on behalf o Ohio consumers to pass national health care reform that will meet the needs of all Ohioans. Now, UHCAN Ohio is coordinating consumer advocacy to make sure that national reform is implemented fully implemented and that consumer interests are protected.

Links to resources on national health care reform implementation:

• Ohio Consumers for Health Coverage  http://www.ohioconsumersforhealth.org/
• Community Catalyst http://www.communitycatalyst.org/
• Families USA http://www.familiesusa.org/
• Universal Health Care Action Network, (UHCAN)  www.uhcan.org. 
• Faithful Reform in Health Care www.faithfulreform.org
• Faith in Public Life www.faithinpubliclife.org

For more up to date information on national reform check out: http://www.communitycatalyst.org/projects/national_reform

Click on the link below to read additional papers from UHCAN Ohio & Community Catalyst :

Medicaid
Prescription Drugs
Consumer Voice and Helplines
Children’s Health Care Priorities
Vulnerable populations
Indivdual Mandates
Pubic Plan
Exchanges

UHCAN Ohio is an endorser of Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) www.healthcareforamericanow.org

UHCAN Ohio, along with many other Ohio organizations, has endorsed the Health Partnership Act, co-sponsored by Senators DeWine (R-Ohio), Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Bingamin (D-New Mexico). This bill would make federal grants available to states for initiatives to expand access, quality, and cost-effectiveness of health care.

We are working with the Cuyahoga County Faith Project, which is uniting faith communities to work for health care for all as a moral imperative. Learn more at www.uhcan.org/faith/ 

State Efforts

"Process" Bill: Advocates in Illinois, led by the 300-organization Campaign for Better Health Care (www.cbhconline.org),  have previously introduced universal health care bills in their state legislature. But, they realized they could not win passage of a bill that mandates a new system upfront. Instead, they are promoting a two-step strategy: a "process bill." Step one: the state legislature plans and fund a public process to develop proposals on achieving universal health care and an independent analysis of proposals. Step Two: A public process would consider the best solution. This two-step approach gives the Campaign time to build the broad political support needed to win the best solution. To learn more about the Illinois "Process Bill," please go to www.uhcan.org.  Under "What's New," click "Illinois Process Bill."

In many states, coalitions are developing and supporting legislation that would improve access, affordability and quality of health care. These coalitions generally involve a broad range of stakeholders, including organizations representing employers, hospitals, physicians, public health, labor, religious communities, and, the public interest and consumers.

Multi-faceted Reform Efforts: Here are links to several statewide efforts that have developed a variety of innovative proposal to strengthen employer-based insurance coverage, strengthen and expand Medicaid, and/or provide for people eligible for neither:

California: Health Access California: http://www.health-access.org/expanding/exp_index.htm

Illinois: Campaign for Better Health Care: www.cbhconline.org

The coalition was instrumental in passage of the Health Care Justice Act, which creates a public process for developing legislation to achieve universal health care, with a deadline for passage by legislators.

Maine: Consumers for Affordable Health Care: http://www.mainecahc.org

For Information on Maine’s Dirigo Health Plan (voluntary plan offering universal access):

http://www.mainecahc.org/coaltion/articles/DIRIGO.htm

Maryland: http://www.healthcareforall.com/theplan.htm

Massachusetts: Health Care For All: http://www.hcfama.org/massact/

Read Community Catalyst's analysis of the Massachusetts health care reform. And remember, Massachusetts is very different from Ohio, in population, state and federal funding for health care, industrial base, median income, etc. Ohio will have to develop its own proposals. Click here for the analysis

Coalition for Affordable Health Care in Ohio (CAHO): http://www.uhcanohio.org/cahoh/  This is a fairly new coalition, initiated by UHCAN Ohio; we are currently uniting stakeholders around broad principles of reform and will seek to identify proposals that have broad support among member organizations.

Single-payer groups: Many state coalitions are working to create public funding in a single system for all, like Medicare for the elderly. Ohio’s single-payer coalition is SPAN Ohio, found at:

www.spanohio.org

 Websites providing additional information on state reform efforts

UHCAN: For a complete list of state and local organizations working for health care for all, go to: http://www.uhcan.org/files/states/statelinks.html

State Coverage Initiative: www.statecoverage.net is an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that works with states to plan, execute and maintain health coverage expansion initiatives. It contains information on what states are doing, reports on different policy options and grids of states that have high risk pools, employer buy-in and other policy options

Families USA: http://www.familiesusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=States_Expansions