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It's Not Too Late To Join Us In Tallahassee on March 21st-23rd!
Come join Florida CHAIN and the Human Services Coalition as they make their annual bus trip to the state capitol from March 21st-23rd to advocate for improved access to and funding for health care. Participants will be trained on priority issues such as Medicaid and KidCare and will learn how to frame messages so legislators listen, learn and act on the behalf of consumers. Participants from accross the state are welcome to join! Click here to inquire about scholarships, ASL interpretation, and other details or to register.
Florida CHAIN Awarded Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant to Improve Health Access Programs by Boosting Florida Cigarette Taxes
Florida CHAIN recently received a grant from RWJF to boost Tobacco Tax efforts in partnership with the Alliance for a Healthy Florida. Florida CHAIN and the AHF want legislators to consider a $1/pack increase on the cigarette tax so as to help fund health care access for low income children and adults, as well as increase the reimbursement rate for physicians who treat Medicaid patients. Read more
Town Hall Meetings: It’s Time for Health Care Reform!
Our nation’s health care is in crisis. Come discuss potential solutions on how it can be fixed. The first two meetings are sponsored by: Healthcare-NOW-Florida, Florida CHAIN, Human Services Coalition of Dade County, and Social Justice Committee of the UUCM.
Saturday, March 24 10:00 am -1:00 pm; UU Congregation of Miami, 7701 SW 76th Ave, South Miami
Saturday, April 14 10:00 am -1:00 pm; South Dade Regional Library, 10750 SW 211 St, Cutler Bay
For more information, call Healthcare-NOW-Florida at 305/576-5001 x 20.
Where is Florida's Federally Mandated Health Care Consumer Voice?
When major changes that potentially affect millions of Floridians are being implemented, shouldn't a government agency entrusted with implementing them reach out to those being affected and provide a formal, open line of communication to share concerns, ideas and solutions?
In a June 4, 1999 letter to potential appointees to what was then called the Medicaid Advisory Council, then AHCA Director Ruben J. King-Shaw, Jr., enthusiastically spelled out the purpose and importance of such a group. “Council members help guide state policy development and offer unique perspective on the Medicaid
program.” A clear affirmation of the quality of grassroots generated input.
Although a few years removed from the recently enacted Medicaid Reform, Mr. King-Shaw exhibited visionary qualities when he wrote: “In the months ahead Florida Medicaid will be working on a number of new or expanded initiatives designed to provide better service to recipients, improve their overall health, and save taxpayers money.” To help enact these changes, King-Shaw said, “I would like for all Council members to be either Medicaid providers or recipients, or actively involved in programs that relate to Medicaid services.” Was his enthusiasm driven solely by altruistic motives? Perhaps, but it helped that by establishing the Council, he was also adhering to Federal law.
Yet, in 2000, after just three quarterly meetings, the minutes of which show a fairly extensive participation list, AHCA deemed what is now referred to as the Medical Care Advisory Committee (MCAC) superfluous and quietly had it “disappear.”
In its short existence, the MCAC provided an opportunity for consumers, advocates, health care providers and government officials to meet, exchange ideas and advise AHCA on how to best manage Medicaid in Florida. It must be allowed to do so again, especially now when a consumer perspective is essential in evaluating the privatization of Medicaid services under Medicaid Reform.
The MCAC can and should be a venue through which individual issues of concern faced by Medicaid Reform enrollees can be discussed to determine whether they reflect systemic problems. This is especially true in light of the glowing reports AHCA is issuing to legislators who must consider, next year, whether to expand the current pilot waiver from Broward, Duval, Clay, Baker and Nassau counties to the remainder of the state.
At a recent public hearing for Medicaid consumers and advocates, Mr. Tom Arnold, Deputy Director of Medicaid, extolled the virtues of the open forum to discuss issues of concern over the MCAC. As part of the discussion, advocate organizations represented by the Medicaid Reform Advocates Coalition, of which Florida CHAIN is a part, provided, in writing, specific examples of instances whereby consumers were complaining of not getting the information they needed from Choice Counselors that would allow them to make an informed selection among the sixteen available plans.
And yet, AHCA’s Second Quarterly Report (p. 15) states: “Various general complaints about the Choice Counseling Program have been received from advocacy groups that are located in Broward County. The Agency has requested specific information from the advocacy groups to allow the Agency to properly nvestigate and resolve any identified problems. To date, the Agency has yet to receive specific information from the advocacy groups that would allow us to investigate.”
Floridians need an entity wherein to discuss and, if need be, counter assertions such as those, and to set the record straight as to how Medicaid Reform is affecting consumers. The MCAC must be reinstated. Federal regulations require it and fund it. It must be allowed to live out the promise of participatory democracy by and on behalf of those most affected by Medicaid Reform.
TAKE ACTION NOW!: Tell Legislators to Restore Florida's Health Care Consumer Voice
HB 1087/SB 1438 would force the Agency for Health Care Administration to appoint and convene a Medical Care Advisory Committee of consumer advocates. This committee is mandated by the federal government, yet AHCA has chosen not to convene members in more than six years.
Please urge members of the House Health Innovation and Senate Health Policy Committees to put this bill on next week's agendas. Also urge committee members to vote in favor of this very important bill that would force AHCA to meet its federal obligations.
It is more important, now than ever, that AHCA hear from consumers as the agency embarks on sweeping changes to Medicaid programs. A Medical Care Advisory Committee would provide consumers a voice during these very important policy discussions.
TAKE ACTION! Click here to tell key committee members to support HB 1087/SB 1438 for the federally mandated and much need consumer advocate voice.
Florida Senate Committee Moves Toward Fixing KidCare
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they are committed to fixing KidCare, the state’s health insurance program for children. Now that the 2007 legislative session is underway, we must make sure legislators keep their promise.
Bills filed in the House and Senate would make it easier for families to apply for KidCare insurance through one streamlined application process. On Wednesday, the Senate Health Policy Committee unanimously approved SB 930, which puts the subsidized health insurance program under one agency, the Department of Health's Division of Children's Health.
Right now, the program is under four different state agencies, making it difficult for parents to enroll their children.
We applaud the Senate committee for signing on as co-sponsors of this very important piece of legislation filed by the chairman, Sen. Mandy Dawson. Her bill does the following:
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Orders KidCare case workers to recruit eligible families and help them enroll. Advocates hope this will stop the decline in enrollment (120,000 in the last three years);
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Expands prenatal health coverage to additional pregnant women whose incomes are at 200 percent of poverty - just over $27,000 a year for a family of two.
And, the bill would reinstate coverage to children of state workers and certain legal immigrants, as long as state budget writers fund this effort.
In the past, Florida allowed a limited number of these children to enroll in KidCare, based upon a fixed amount of money. But in 2004, the Legislature adopted several measures to curb enrollment and contain costs. For example, lawmakers reduced year-round enrollment to two months.
Since that time, only a small number of the 25,000 children (many of them immigrants) have retained their KidCare coverage. Meanwhile, children of firefighters, school district employees and other government workers who would qualify for KidCare coverage do not have access to it.
We are asking the Legislature for $15 million to restore coverage for a limited amount of children. In a parallel effort, we must urge Congress to give Florida the federal dollars needed cover these children under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP.
Sen. Dawson’s bill goes next to the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee for review. The House Health Innovation Committee conducted a workshop on the issue earlier in the week but did not vote on it.
OPINION: Florida must boost efforts to keep needy kids healthy
by Modesto E. Abety, president and CEO of The Children's Trust
Florida KidCare, our state's version of the federal State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), once was a model for the nation. Now, having become one of the most complicated programs in the country, hundreds of thousands of our neediest children have fallen off the enrollment books -- and the number of casualties will grow unless we act. Read more
Florida Children's Cabinet Bill Gains Support
A bipartisan bill that would create a Florida Children’s Cabinet is scheduled for a House committee vote next Tuesday after getting a much needed endorsement from Gov. Charlie Crist and several advocates.
The House Health Innovation Committee heard testimony Tuesday from advocates representing pediatricians, mental health service coordinators, developmentally disabled individuals and others who said a Children’s Cabinet would improve coordination among agencies that serve children.
In his State of the State address a week earlier, Gov. Crist announced his support of the legislation, saying that it’s important to raise the profile of children’s issues.
“As stewards of this state, our greatest obligation is to our children,” Gov. Crist said in his speech. “But often it is their voice that goes unheard, or overlooked. Our children need a voice. They need to be at the table because soon it will be their table. That is why I will support the creation of a Children’s Cabinet to coordinate state services and oversee child welfare issues.”
The Cabinet would be comprised of secretaries of state departments and agencies that deal with children’s issues, along with children advocates. The Cabinet would be responsible for developing recommendations for streamlining services for children. Cabinet members would also have the ability to make budget recommendations, among other responsibilities.
The committee is scheduled to vote on the bill next Tuesday. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Loranne Ausley and co-sponsored by Rep. Ari Porth.
This Cabinet would certainly elevate children’s issues, which have often taken a back seat to other initiatives in our state. Far too often, we see children without access to the proper mental health services wind up in juvenile detention facilities. Or, children with health problems that lead to developmental delays fall behind in class. They eventually drop out of school, adding to Florida’s already high drop-out rate. These problems are complex and inter-related.
There have been few, if any, efforts to look at the needs of children in a comprehensive fashion. Members of a Children’s Cabinet could develop an inventory of services, identify areas of duplication or overlap, and recommend ways to deliver services more efficiently.
The Senate version (SB 564) filed by Sen. Nan Rich is co-sponsored by Democrat Sen. Tony Hill of Jacksonville and two Republicans, Sen. Durell Peaden of Crestview and Sen. Evelyn Lynn of Daytona Beach.
The legislation is the work product of the inaugural Children’s Summit held in Orlando late last year. More than 1,000 community leaders, children’s advocates, providers, elected officials and others attended the event, which was co-sponsored by Sens. Peaden and Rich, and Reps. Ausley and J.C. Planas of Miami.
Florida Pilot to Shift Seniors to Managed Care Finds Strong AARP Opposition
Florida Senior Care, Jeb Bush’s controversial pilot project that would shift seniors into managed health care, has several members of the Legislature in a quandary.
Lawmakers in 2005 gave the Agency for Health Care Administration the green light to seek federal approval for the managed care experiment with one caveat: AHCA had to get final approval from the state Legislature. The federal government approved Florida Senior Care late year, but many lawmakers have balked at advancing the program, largely because of significant opposition from the powerful AARP lobby.
But newly elected Gov. Charlie Crist wants to see the program put in place. A bill filed by one of loyal supporters, Sen. Durell Peaden, would allow AHCA to move forward with the pilot program without legislative approval. As of early this week Peaden’s bill (SB 2450) had no companion bill filed in the House. However, House Speaker Marco Rubio supports the program and is listed in his book, “100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future,’’ the template for his legislative agenda.
Florida Senior Care would be limited to the Pensacola and Orlando regions. Seniors who usually obtain their long-term care needs from the state Medicaid program would have to enroll in a managed care plan to get those services. Supporters, including AHCA officials, say that the care would be better coordinated.
Jack McRay, lobbyist for AARP Florida Seniors, told the Tampa Tribune last month that seniors should not be forced into these plans. "Determinations about senior care should be made by the seniors with input from their families, their friends and their communities. They should be able to choose for themselves among appropriate service systems, programs and the locations," McRay said.
AHCA has conducted a few public hearings about Florida Senior Care and, despite opposition, continues to sign up providers in the Pensacola and Orlando regions. Florida CHAIN remains concerned with AHCA’s continued efforts to move Medicaid consumers into managed care plans without adequate safeguards.
New Federal Documentation Rules Drop Citizens from Florida Medicaid Rolls
Florida Medicaid has seen a drop of 63,000 children since new federal documentation requirements went into effect, the Washington Post reported.
Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio and Virginia have reported similar declines in enrollment, linking them to the new federal requirement. It requires Medicaid consumers to show proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a birth certificate, passport or driver’s license, in order to retain benefits.
The intended goal was to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining Medicaid benefits. However, many beneficiaries who actually are citizens but cannot provide documentation are being turned away.
In Florida, the number of children on Medicaid declined by 63,000, to 1.2 million, from July 2006 to January of this year, according to the Washington Post.
“We’ve seen an increase in the number of people who don’t qualify for Medicaid because they cannot produce proof of citizenship,” said Albert A. Zimmerman, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families. “Nearly all of these people are American citizens.”
Florida CHAIN Awarded Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant To Support Efforts To Improve Health Access Programs Through An Increased Tobacco Tax
Grant will enhance the work being done in partnership with the Alliance for a Healthy Florida
March 15, 2007
Florida recently received a $75,000 grant to support its Alliance for a Healthy Florida (AHF) campaign, a statewide effort to expand health access programs through increased tax revenues from tobacco products.The initiative is one of 21 projects supported by Tobacco Policy Change: A Collaboration for Healthier Communities and States, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
“This grant will help focus attention on raising the tobacco tax as a way to improve the health of Floridians. We seek to decrease smoking among children and adults while proactively finding a solution to the problem of the uninsured,” said Lisa Margulis, executive director of Florida CHAIN, referring to AHF efforts to identify funding streams to help cover health care access costs for low income children and adults, as well as increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for physicians.
The Alliance for a Healthy Florida campaign also includes a number of partnering organizations such as the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Florida Academy of Family Physicians, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Florida ACORN, Florida Child Health Care Coalition, National Council of Negro Women and Community Catalyst. More information on AHF can be found at http://www.allianceforahealthyflorida.org
“The Florida Academy of Family Physicians, with its 4,000 members, is proud to be a part of this effort. We must do everything in our power to deter individuals from smoking and the cost of cigarettes is certainly a proven deterrent,” said Tad Fisher, executive vice president.
While 40 years of tobacco control efforts have produced significant reductions in smoking, there continues to be a compelling need for advocacy and education efforts focused on the dangers of tobacco use and exposure. Each year tobacco use kills 440,000 Americans, and nearly 40,000 nonsmokers in this country die from lung cancer and heart disease due to secondhand smoke exposure.
Exorbitant health care costs, compounded by the number of uninsured individuals in Florida, are a disaster in the making and call for immediate action. Annual health care costs in Florida directly caused by smoking are $6.32 billion. Additionally, about 3.1 million Floridians, close to 20% of the state population, are uninsured - costing taxpayers $7 billion in 2006, according to the Florida Medical Association.
Florida can begin to address these problems through an increased tobacco tax. A major tax increase on cigarettes will rapidly and significantly reduce the number of smokers. Studies show that a 10 % price increase for cigarettes reduces tobacco products usage by 7% among youth and 4% among adults.
“It is vital that people who live and work in places hit hardest by tobacco have a say in making their communities healthier places to work and raise a family,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., RWJF president and CEO. “The work of Florida CHAIN reflects a focused, community-based approach targeted in areas that suffer disproportionately high rates of tobacco use, exposure to secondhand smoke and related diseases.”
The RWJF grant is part of three one-year grant awards, which vary in range from $75,000 to $150,000 through its Tobacco Policy Change: A Collaborative for Healthier Communities and States program. This is providing up to $12 million in support of tobacco prevention and cessation policy initiatives, especially in those areas where tobacco continues to have its most devastating consequences.
For more information on this program and the many others supported by RWJF, visit www.rwjf.org.
AHCA Requirements May Hinder Homeless and Mental Health Consumers
March 16, 2007
Past issues of CHAIN Reaction have outlined two types of problems many advocates, providers and consumers have encountered with Medicaid Reform: those that can be solved on an individual basis through commitment of time and resources by AHCA District officers and ACS staff; and those that are systemic, or reflect inherent flaws with the Reform program that must be fixed before it is allowed to go beyond the “pilot” stage. ACS is the company hired to manage the Choice Counselor component to Medicaid Reform.
Throughout the first stages of Medicaid Reform in Broward and Duval, advocates have warned that the pilot was rushed through legislation with insufficient consideration for its effects on consumers. Advocates have concluded that it is far too early to declare the pilot a success. In fact, on an almost daily basis, examples show a system that has erected barriers and lacks safeguards. This is particularly true for many who suffer from mental illness and/or are homeless.
Mark Ecko is homeless with no stable mailing address, but who volunteers on the Board of Directors of the PEER Center, a mental health consumers’ drop-in program in Fort Lauderdale. Recently, he found himself in a quandary. He is "dual-eligible," receiving both Medicare and Medicaid. In January of 2006, Mark was auto-enrolled in a Part D “preferred drug provider” plan managed by an HMO.
Fast forward to December 2006: “When I went to pick up my medications the pharmacist told me they were no longer covered and that now I was responsible for up-front payments adding up to most of my monthly income.” So he called the HMO. Upon contacting the HMO he was told that, “I had lucked out for a year. I should have been paying all along.” Baffled, he pondered the situation for some time, going without needed medication and eventually calling the HMO again. “They told me that what I needed to do was disenroll from Part D and get my medications through Medicaid.”
Even more confused and reluctant to trust an HMO, Mark decided to call the Medicaid Reform Choice Counselor line. He wanted to know if, as a dual eligible and in his circumstances, he could get what he needed by enrolling in a Medicaid Reform plan.
When he called, in response to some of the questions Choice Counselors are required by AHCA regulation to ask, Mark had to verify his mailing address: specifically the one of record with DCF or Social Security. As mentioned, Mark is homeless and has listed various addresses over the past years. He gave the counselor the address he thought was the correct one and was told that wasn’t it. He gave another that still didn't match. After trying unsuccessfully with a third and a fourth, he was told he could not be helped until he could produce the correct address: Still no medication.
Mark’s situation reflects one that is likely repeated many times over among the homeless and mentally ill. He gave up and still doesn’t know whether enrolling in a reform plan (which as a dual-eligible he is entitled to choose to do) will help his situation or not.
Bill Schneider, the Coordinator of the Office of Consumer Affairs for the Broward Regional Health Planning Council, works closely with mental health consumers and offered to help Mark with calling the Choice Counselor line to confirm the requirements. He was told the same thing: no address, no help.
Again, these are not ACS’s regulations. These are AHCA’s. As such they expose a deeper problem that is not reflective of the efforts of ACS’s field counselors or AHCA’s district level officers who are regularly called upon to put out fires of this nature and do so with admirable patience and professionalism. In this case, through the help of Florida CHAIN, Mark was able to arrange an appointment with a field Choice Counselor to help him with his issue.
But for every Mark Ecko that can finally navigate his way through the maze and get the help he needs, there are many others who fall through the cracks of a Medicaid reform program that must be slowed down to consider and review how consumers are really affected, and resolve problems systemically before they are expanded to the rest of the state.
Florida CHAIN Seeks Stories
Florida CHAIN welcomes contributions from health care consumers who are interested in sharing their experiences with readers of CHAIN Reaction. If you have a story to share, please contact Andrew Leone at 954/684-9895 or andrewl@floridachain.org
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RECENT HEALTH ARTICLES
March 16, 2007
Florida News & Opinions
KidCare, SCHIP, Healthy Start
Medicare and Medicaid
Medicare Drug Coverage, Drug Costs
Other Medicare, Medicaid
Health Insurance and Costs
Other Health Issues
National News & Opinions
Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP
Medicare Drug Coverage, Drug Costs
Other Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP
Health Insurance and Costs
Other National Health Issues
KidCare, SCHIP, Healthy Start
Senate panel approves KidCare overhaul, expansion
Getting low-cost health care for their children could get much easier for families eligible for the KidCare program, which would also be expanded to cover more children, under a major overhaul approved Wednesday by a Senate committee. KidCare is actually a mishmash of different programs that also currently includes Healthy Kids, MediKids and Medicaid - with administrative functions for some of them housed in different state agencies. That would change under the measure (SB 930) unanimously approved by the Senate Health Policy Committee, which puts the subsidized health insurance program under one roof at the Department of Health's Division of Children's Health. The committee also voted to expand the program to cover the children of state workers and certain legal immigrants. The measure would also expand the number of adult pregnant women who can get KidCare coverage for their prenatal care, from those whose incomes are at 185 percent of the poverty level to those who are at 200 percent of poverty - just over $27,000 a year for a family of two. The wide-ranging bill also directs the KidCare program to send case workers into the community to find eligible families and help them enroll. (3/14/07, Lakeland Ledger)
OPINION: Florida must boost efforts to keep needy kids healthy
by Modesto Abety, president and CEO of The Children's Trust
Florida KidCare, our state's version of the federal State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), once was a model for the nation. Now, having become one of the most complicated programs in the country, hundreds of thousands of our neediest children have fallen off the enrollment books -- and the number of casualties will grow unless we act. Because KidCare enrollment numbers have fallen, Florida has lost $139.7 million of its federal allotments for children's health insurance to other states. For a funding opportunity that returns 71 cents from Washington for every 29 cents Florida invests, this is worth throwing a tantrum over. Created in 1997 in a bipartisan thrust to cover children whose parents could not afford private health insurance, SCHIP has enjoyed extraordinary national success. The legislation expires in September, however, and Congress must move to reauthorize this program that remains remarkably able to generate bipartisan support. During the past decade, this program has added hundreds of thousands of children from the neediest of America's families to the rolls of the health-insured. Everywhere the numbers of enrolled children have increased steadily. (3/8/07, Miami Herald)
OPINION: Editorial: Fixing KidCare: Better access, not drastic change, needed
Somewhere along the line, Florida leaders faltered in their commitment to their own groundbreaking KidCare program. While other states were forging ahead, signing up as many children as possible for their health care initiatives, Florida lawmakers found ways to turn families away. They didn't always say no -- often it was enough to set the bureaucratic barriers too high for families to clear. But officials also shut the door in the face of children of state employees and many legal immigrants. (3/10/07, Daytona Beach News-Journal)
Editorial: Wrong place to skimp: Retain federal funding of poor children's health care
Despite estimates that 700,000 children in Florida lack health insurance, state officials have repeatedly failed to meet enrollment requirements necessary to qualify for federal dollars that can help provide coverage. Yet, even in other states that have done a better job of running the children's health care programs, governors are upset about proposed changes in the federal funding commitment. (3/5/07, Sarasota Herald Tribune)
Advocates push health care for kids of immigrants, state workers
As lawmakers try to figure out how to boost enrollment in the state's low-cost health insurance program for children, some advocates call for expanding the program to cover the children of legal immigrants and state workers. (3/7/07, Bradenton Herald)
Health care a priority, Democrats say
Intense interest in cutting property taxes shouldn't stand in the way of the state making headway this year at reducing the number of uninsured children in Florida, state lawmakers said Friday. House Democrats, who hold a third of the seats in the 120-member chamber and whose support will be key to the passage of any major tax initiative, are hoping to pass health-care-reform legislation during the legislative session that starts Tuesday. They are sponsoring a bill that would ask voters in 2008 to insert a guarantee in the constitution that all children in Florida would have access to health insurance by July 2010. The lawmakers said they intend to promote the issue at churches, synagogues and newspaper editorial boards throughout the state during the upcoming 60-day session. (3/3/07, Orlando Sentinel)
Medicare and Medicaid
Medicare Drug Coverage, Drug Cost
Other Medicare, Medicaid
Public Services And Tax Cut Are At Odds
House leaders are negotiating changes to their proposal to cut property taxes to protect hospitals and children's programs from losing millions, even billions, of dollars. The House proposal unveiled last month to roll back property taxes to 2001 rates, and possibly eliminate them by constitutional amendment, did not spare special taxing authorities created by voters. That would mean local hospital districts and Children's Services Councils would lose some or all of their property tax dollars. But the new pressure to keep down Medicaid spending on health and welfare programs serving the poor and disabled could wind up kicking people off the Medicaid rolls, advocates warned. "This puts more pressure on Medicaid to cut programs," said Lisa Margulis, executive director of the Florida Community Health Action Information Network. "Whenever you're creating less insured individuals, the rest of society will pay." (3/15/07, Tampa Tribune)
OPINION: Going overboard: New Medicaid rule denies U.S. citizens
Many low-income Americans aren't getting the help they need. Last year, Congress enacted a law intended to keep non-citizens from accessing Medicaid. The Bush administration went a step further: Its rule implementing the new law requires positive proof of citizenship in the form of a passport or birth certificate and government-issued photo ID. A spokesman for the Florida Department of Health told The New York Times that enrollment in Medicaid was dropping because of the requirement. Many families don't have those papers - and many who were turned away were in fact U.S. citizens. There are better alternatives. In a report issued in September, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities noted that many states have the ability to perform electronic records checks to determine citizenship status. This still would take time, and only works for people born in the same state, but it's an improvement over the Bush administration's all-paper system and something Florida should consider. In the meantime, congressional leaders should take a look at the system and recognize that there's no reliable evidence that Medicaid was being abused. This requirement is hitting hardest against impoverished people, many of whom are unable to speak for themselves, and that's ample evidence to repeal this rule of unintended consequences. (3/13/07, Daytona Beach News-Journal)
OPINION: Children's health vital to community
Though we are quick to encourage women to seek early prenatal care and to consistently take their children to well-baby check-ups, we cannot ignore that there are substantial barriers that make access to medical care a difficulty, if not an impossibility, for a large segment of our community. The greatest of these barriers is the number of women and families who are uninsured. In Florida, 15 percent of our 3.9 million children are uninsured. With the high cost of medical care, few families are willing to pay the price for preventative care services. Our children's health is vitally important, not just for themselves, but also for us as a community. Expansion of Medicaid eligibility to 200 percent of the federal poverty level will allow more pregnant women and children to receive the medical care that they deserve for a healthy future. (3/14/07, Bradenton Herald)
Prenatal cases flood local clinics for poor
Medical clinics that serve the poor in Florida are being overwhelmed by illegal immigrants and other uninsured women needing prenatal services, creating a looming crisis that already has forced at least one health department to close its doors to pregnant patients. Two groups that serve the poor in Orange County say they are booked to capacity for prenatal services, with women waiting up to five weeks to get an initial appointment at the busiest locations. (3/11/07, Orlando Sentinel)
OPINION: Block meatball surgery on state's hospitals, poor
Hospitals that serve as safety nets for poor and uninsured Floridians would be hardest hit by a Medicaid rule the Bush administration has proposed - not just for Florida but throughout the country. So, Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and Rep. Ron Klein, D-Fla., correctly are trying to delay the cuts, which would cost Florida's hospitals as much as $932 million each year in federal and state matching money. Even as it refuses to address the wider health-care issue that is the source of this problem, the federal government continues to dump patients from Medicaid and force more costs onto states. The number of children on Medicaid in Florida dropped by 63,000 from July to January because of unreasonable requirements to prove citizenship, harming the children and the hospitals that will be stuck with the bills. With a series of rules that will take effect automatically if Congress does not intervene, the Bush administration would hurt those who need Medicaid the most. (3/14/07, Palm Beach Post)
Medicaid payment limits spur uproar
County hospitals may lose $10M in federal funds A proposal to limit federal Medicaid payments has hospital and public-health officials around the country protesting that the cuts will damage the nation's health care safety net for the poor and uninsured. State data show 46,439 Brevard County residents meet low-income criteria to qualify for medical assistance under Medicaid. If proposed budget cuts to Medicaid go through as planned, Brevard hospitals would lose more than $10 million a year in matching federal funds. (3/14/07, Florida Today)
Effort would halt cuts to hospitals
Democratic Rep. Ron Klein and Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have teamed up to introduce a bill in the House of Representatives to stop federal officials from cutting $4.6 billion in funding from Florida hospitals that serve disproportionate levels of the poor and uninsured. (3/12/06, Bradenton Herald)
Bill sought to protect Florida hospitals' Medicaid money
Florida hospitals would avoid the loss of more than $4 billion in Medicaid money under a congressional bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez. (3/7/07, South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Medicare, Medicaid: Proposed cuts alarm health-care CEOs, lobbyists
Rule change, Bush’s 2008 budget plan could put system in financial peril, opponents say. Drop the rule change. Stop the cuts. That’s what hospital chiefs and health-care lobbyists are telling federal officials and members of Congress regarding a double-edged sword of proposed funding cuts, which they say would plunge the nation’s health-care system into deeper financial peril than it faces now. (3/5/07, Naples News)
Health Insurance and Costs
Hospitals' hidden condition: Medical pricing: $5 aspirin to $5,000 MRIs, seemingly inflated prices give insurers headaches
Frank Krupa and his daughter-in-law both underwent CT scans last year, but the cost for his was roughly a third less -- $4,445 for him vs. $6,863 for her. The scans weren't different enough to explain the huge price disparity. No, the difference was the result of one factor, said Krupa, a Merritt Island retiree: Her insurance company had to pay the full cost for the diagnostic procedure while his had a negotiated discount. (3/12/07, Orlando Sentinel)
Other Health Issues
Hospital calls for trauma care tax
Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute said Friday it wants St. Lucie County homeowners to pay an average of $50 a year to support a trauma center it plans to open in October. Without the extra $7 million in annual county funding, Lawnwood will reconsider its decision to open the first Treasure Coast trauma center. Martin and St. Lucie county residents now go to trauma centers in West Palm Beach or Melbourne for care. "Every time we have to fly an injured person to Palm Beach or Melbourne, we lose precious minutes that can make a difference in saving a life or minimizing lifelong complications," St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said. "The ability to transport within our county saves minutes, which saves lives." The proposed St. Lucie trauma funding would be achieved through an extra 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value that property owners would pay each year. (3/10/07, Palm Beach Post)
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINIONS
Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP
Medicare Drug Coverage, Drug Cost
Prescription drug plan unaffordable: official
A prescription drug benefit of the U.S. Medicare program is a "financially irresponsible" addition to a system
that was already on course for possible bankruptcy, the U.S. government's top accountant said in an interview on Sunday. "The prescription drug bill is probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s ... because we promise way more than we can afford to keep," U.S. Comptroller General David Walker said on CBS' "60 Minutes." Walker said $8 trillion would be needed immediately, invested at treasury rates, to cover the gap between what Medicare is expected to take in and what it is expected to cost over the next 75 years. Walker, head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said the long-term problem facing Medicare and other entitlement program is the aging baby boomer generation -- the roughly 78 million Americans born between World War Two and the Vietnam war. (3/4/07, Reuters)
Other Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP News
States Face Imminent SCHIP Funding Shortfalls; Georgia Set to Freeze Enrollment
As Congress wrestles with reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), 14 states with federal funding shortfalls are considering cuts, with Georgia facing the worst problem and set to freeze enrollment as of this week. (3/8/07, USA Today)
Congressional Democrats and Republicans Differ on Specifics of SCHIP Reauthorization
Though both Democrats and Republicans in Congress want to renew the successful State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which is up for reauthorization by September, the parties differ on how much to fund and who should be covered. (3/4/07, Washington Post)
Citizens Who Lack Papers Lose Medicaid
A new federal rule intended to keep illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid has instead shut out tens of thousands of United States citizens who have had difficulty complying with requirements to show birth certificates and other documents proving their citizenship, state officials say. Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio and Virginia have all reported declines in enrollment and traced them to the new federal requirement, which comes just as state officials around the country are striving to expand coverage through Medicaid and other means. Under a 2006 federal law, the Deficit Reduction Act, most people who say they are United States citizens and want Medicaid must provide “satisfactory documentary evidence of citizenship,” which could include a passport or the combination of a birth certificate and a driver’s license. Some state officials say the Bush administration went beyond the law in some ways, for example, by requiring people to submit original documents or copies certified by the issuing agency. (3/12/07, New York Times)
Grassley Measure Focuses on Newborns' Medicaid Eligibility
Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has introduced legislation he said would "fix glitches" with laws regarding Medicaid eligibility for newborns. Some hospital and children's health groups have accused state Medicaid officials of incorrectly using the budget savings bill, also known as the "Deficit Reduction Act," as a way to deny Medicaid health coverage to babies born to undocumented parents, even though the children are U.S. citizens. (3/5/07, CMWF Health Policy Week)
Health Insurance and Costs
For Want of a Dentist
Maryland boy, 12, dies after bacteria from tooth spread to his brain
Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday. A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him. If his mother had been insured. (2/28/07, Washington Post)
Poll Shows Majority Back Health Care for All
A majority of Americans say the federal government should guarantee health insurance to every American, especially children, and are willing to pay higher taxes to do it, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. (3/1/07, New York Times)
Without Health Benefits, a Good Life Turns Fragile
Vicki H. Readling vividly remembers the start of 2006. ''Everybody was saying, 'Happy new year,' '' Ms. Readling recalled. ''But I remember going straight to bed and lying down scared to death because I knew that at that very minute, after midnight, I was without insurance. I was kissing away a bad year of cancer. But I was getting ready to open up to a door of hell.'' Ms. Readling, a 50-year-old real estate agent, is one of nearly 47 million people in America with no health insurance. (3/5/07, New York imes)
New Estimates Give Critics of Bush Health Plan More Ammo
A financial analysis of President Bush's fiscal 2008 budget gave new ammunition to opponents of the administration's plan to change the current tax treatment of employer-provided health care insurance. "Very preliminary" estimates found that Bush's plan would raise $526 billion in taxes over the next decade, rather than be budget neutral as administration officials said when Bush released his plan. (2/26/07, CQ HealthBeat)
Fewer Low-Income Parents are Being Offered Health Insurance on the Job, or Are Able to Afford it Privately
Nearly 65% of uninsured kids are low-income; D.C., Mississippi, Kentucky top list; Lawmakers debate extending State Children's Health Insurance Program. (3/14/07, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
OPINION: Children Are the Right Starting Point for Solving the Uninsured Crisis
Editorial supporting covering the nation's 9 million uninsured children bemoans the Bush administration's "shortsighted" proposal to reduce the federal contribution to the "highly successful" State Children's Health Insurance Program and praises Congressional Democrats' efforts to respond with a boost in funding. (3/12/07, New York Times)
Health Care Is Proving to Be a Major Issue in 2008 Presidential Race
Both Democratic and Republican presidential contenders are strutting their health care reform credentials, making it clear that "no White House hopeful can be taken seriously in the rapidly evolving 2008 race without confronting what many Americans have long said is one of their biggest concerns: the availability and affordability of health care." (3/6/07, Washington Post)
Uninsured Kids Are Twice as Likely to Die in the Hospital as Kids With Coverage
Uninsured children who are hospitalized with injuries are twice as likely to die as those with coverage, and are also less likely to get expensive treatment or rehabilitation and are discharged earlier, according to a study from Families USA. (2/27/07, USA Today)
Growing Number of Uninsured Who Are Middle Class
Being uninsured is increasingly a middle-class problem. (3/5/07, New York Times)
OPINION: USA Today Predicts Action on Health Care Reform
"The stars appear to be aligning" for health care reform, long considered too financially and politically costly to tackle, according to an editorial. (2/26/07, USA Today)
Other Health Issues
It's Time to Make Public Health Funding a National Priority
More than 400 health organizations urged Congress to restore funding for public health programs in fiscal year
2008 in this letter of (2/26/07, AHA News)
HEALTH ADVOCACY RESOURCES
March 16, 2007
Florida CHAIN Website Resources
Grants and Fellowships
Organizations and Services
Manuals, Guides and Toolkits
Technology and Audio Visual Materials
Audioconferences and Webcasts
Media Programming
Web Sites, Web Features
Videos
Periodicals and Books
Reports and Studies
New Listings
New Listings: Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP
New Listings: Federal Budget
New: Health Insurance, Health Care Costs
New: Health Equity Issues
New: Other Health Issues
Florida Reports
Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIPS
Federal Budget/Health Care
Health Insurance, Health Costs, Health Care Reform
Health Equity Issues
Other Health Issues
FLORIDA CHAIN WEB SITE RESOURCE UPDATE
Florida CHAIN has advocacy tools available online.
Expanding Medicaid Eligibility for Pregnant Women
(By Carol Brady of Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions)
This one-page report responds to these questions: Why is health care coverage important during pregnancy?How does Medicaid impact health care coverage for pregnant women? Why do we need to expand Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women? How can Florida expand coverage for pregnant women? Expanded eligibility would leverage federal funding for the uninsured, increasing access to prenatal care for at-risk women and matching SCHIP Medicaid eligibility for infants through age one. Expanding Medicaid coverage for uninsured women up to 200% of the federal poverty level would provide needed support to the working, uninsured families for whom pregnancy-related health care is a significant burden.
Florida Medicaid Reform PowerPoint Presentation
Educate your colleagues and/or employees on Florida Medicaid Reform basics. with Florida CHAIN's PowerPoint presentation for public use. Feel free to call Florida CHAIN for more information about Medicaid reform or about the PowerPoint: 954/791-7314.
The Florida CHAIN web site now includes resource information in Spanish.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
New listings
Education that Empowers Women to Play an Active Role in their Breast Health
Letter of Intent Postmark Deadline: March 24
The Florida Breast Cancer Coalition Research Foundation (FBCCRF), dedicated to the eradication of breast cancer through Research, Education, and Action, announces its third round of education grants. FBCCRF receives its funds through the sale of Florida End Breast Cancer specialty license plates. The complete application procedure for applying is outlined in the Application Procedure for Foundation Grants on the website. Only Florida non-profits classified as 501 (C)(3) and/ or 509 (a)(1), (2), or (3) with an historic interest in providing life-saving health information to Florida residents are eligible. The foundation is particularly interested in proposals that target individuals with language and cultural barriers, individuals who live in underserved areas and programs that target individuals that have the capacity to educate others. The foundation expects to award five to seven education grants up to $10,000.00, and totaling no more than $50,000.00. According to the Florida Cancer Plan 2003 – 2006, in Florida Black and Hispanic women have significantly lower prevalences of ever having a mammogram. Proposals awarded will impact theses disparities. For additional information, contact Marjie@fbccrf.org or 954/454-4165.
Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health Across the US (REACH US)
Deadline: May 7
The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announces the availability of fiscal year 2007 funds for cooperative agreements to advance evidence- and practice-based programs and culturally based community practices to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities through implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of state of the art knowledge.
CDC Foundation Hero Award Call for Nominations
Deadline: May 15
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation Hero Award was established in 2005 to coincide with the foundation's tenth anniversary celebrating "A Decade of Heroes." The award recognizes an individual or organization that has made a significant contribution to improving the public's health through exemplary work in advancing CDC's mission of promoting health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury and disability.
$115 Million Commitment to Improve Quality of Health Care in Communities
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will expand regional quality strategy, and will focus on patients and reducing racial and ethnic health care disparities. The philanthropy, which works to improve the health and health care of all Americans, will expand its strategy to improve the quality of care for patients with chronic illnesses by focusing more intensively at the local level. RWJF will also remain active in national efforts to standardize performance measures and public reporting on quality.
Continuing listings, in order of submission deadlines
Take Action: Healthy People, Places and Practices in Communities
Deadline: March 30
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Public Health and Science, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the Regional Health Administrators are requesting proposals from community-based organizations and others to evaluate the impact of a unique set of healthy lifestyles activities in local settings that support the President's HealthierUS initiative.
Diabetes Educators Process-Outcome Linkages "Building the Evidence"
Deadline: April 1
This American Association of Diabetes Educators RFA seeks applications using innovative approaches to examine the efficacy of diabetes educator interventions for improving self-care behavior in managing T1D or T2D or a related condition.
Fresh Ideas: Improving the Health of Immigrant and Refugee CommunitiesApplication Deadline: Apr 13
This initiative aims to give immigrants and refugees the tools and support they need to improve and maintain their own health. Today, more than 30 million immigrants and refugees live in the United States. They often have high rates of chronic health problems, due at least in part to difficulties they have getting appropriate social and health services. Language barriers, lack of education and cultural differences sometimes make it harder for immigrants and refugees to obtain culturally appropriate services, outreach or other information that could help them live healthier lives.
Community Program/Community-Based Participatory Research
Letter of Intent Due: April 13
Invited Full Proposal Due: June 22
The Lance Armstrong Foundation seeks to create a community of individuals and organizations across the United States that both understands the challenges and opportunities that a cancer experience presents and is committed to collaborating to address and resolve the physical, emotional, and practical issues faced by cancer survivors. Interventions must be cancer survivorship-related and may be designed to directly impact health or behavior, or be targeted at providers, systems, and/or policies. CBPR is defined as a collaborative, equitable research partnership that has the following characteristics: It is participatory; It is cooperative, engaging community members and researchers in a joint process in which both contribute equally; It is a co-learning process; It involves system development and local community capacity building; It is an empowering process through which participants can increase control over their lives; It achieves a balance between research and action. Funding maximum: $25,000; Period of Support: 1 to 2 years.
Community Program – Evolution Grant
Letter of Intent Due: April 13
Invited Full Proposal Due: June 22
The Lance Armstrong Foundation endeavors to positively impact survivors by partnering with community organizations to develop and expand direct service and support programs that address quality-of-life issues. The LAF Community Program provides financial support and capacity-building to community non-profit organizations enhancing the quality of life today for those living with, through and beyond cancer. Evolution Grant priority is given to projects that employ innovative, collaborative approaches to addressing long-term survivorship issues and the needs of underserved communities including, but not limited to adolescent/young adult survivors, ethnic and racial minorities, and rural populations. Grant applications will be considered in four subject areas: 1. Physical Activity and Nutrition; 2. Survivorship Education; 3. Emotional Support; 4. Practical Issues of Survivorship. Organizations should have a well-developed design for the program and a complete plan for its implementation and evaluation. Funding up to $100,000 over two years OR up to $150,000 over three years.
Community Program – Implementation Grant
Letter of Intent Due: April 13
Invited Full Proposal Due: June 22
The LAF Community Program provides financial support and capacity-building to community non-profit organizations enhancing the quality of life today for those living with, through and beyond cancer. The LAF also offers its Community Program partners regular training, technical assistance and the opportunity to discuss challenges and exchange best practices at an annual Community Program conference. Priority is given to projects that employ innovative, collaborative approaches to addressing long-term survivorship issues and the needs of underserved communities including, but not limited to adolescent/young adult survivors, ethnic and racial minorities, and rural populations. Grant applications will be considered in 1. Physical Activity and Nutrition; 2. Survivorship Education; 3. Emotional Support; 4. Practical Issues of Survivorship. Funding maximum $25,000 per year. Period of Support 1 to 2 years
NIH: Community Participation in ResearchDeadline: May 18
The goal of this funding opportunity announcement is to support research on health promotion, disease prevention and health disparities that is jointly conducted by communities and researchers. This funding opportunity announcement will utilize the National Institutes of Health research project grant (R01) award mechanism and runs in parallel with an announcement of identical scientific scope, PAR-06-247, that solicits applications under the exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21) award mechanism.
Supporting Innovation in Health and Health Care
Deadline: July 10
The Local Initiative Funding Partners Program (LIFP) is a partnership program between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and local grant-makers to fund promising, original projects to significantly improve the health of vulnerable people in their communities.
The Effect of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination/Bias on Healthcare DeliveryDeadline: variable
The purposes of this Funding Opportunity Announcement are: (1) to improve the measurement of racial/ethnic discrimination in healthcare delivery systems; (2) to enhance understanding of the influence of racial/ethnic discrimination in healthcare delivery and its association with disparities; and (3) to reduce the prevalence of racial/ethnic health disparities.
United Healthcare Children's Foundation Helps Underinsured Children
The Foundation offers support for children nationwide with assistance grants for medical services not fully covered by health insurance. Parents and caretakers can apply for up to $5,000.00 for health care services that will help improve their children's health and quality of life. Eligible children must be 16 or younger. Families must meet economic guidelines, live in the U.S. and be covered by a commercial health insurance plan. Examples of the types of medical services covered by include speech therapy; physical therapy and psychotherapy; medical equipment such as wheelchairs, braces, hearing aids and eye-glasses, and orthodontic and dental treatments. The Foundation has helped more than 375 families and provided nearly $1 million in financial assistance
NIH: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Health
Application deadline: variable
The ultimate goal of this program announcement is to encourage the development of health research that integrates knowledge from the biomedical and social sciences. This announcement invites applications to (a) elucidate basic social and cultural constructs and processes used in health research, (b) clarify social and cultural factors in the etiology and consequences of health and illness, (c) link basic research to practice for improving prevention, treatment, health services, and dissemination, and (d) explore ethical issues in social and cultural research related to health.
Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization
Application Deadline: Open
This Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program supports policy analysis, research, evaluation and demonstration projects that provide policy leaders timely information on health care policy and financing issues. This Call for Proposals is intended to support projects that: 1) examine significant issues and interventions related to health care financing and organization and their effects on health care costs, quality and access; and 2) explore or test major new ways to finance and organize health care that have the potential to improve access to more affordable and higher quality health services.
Funding for Community-Based Approaches to Improve Care for Vulnerable Populations
Deadline: Rolling
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is accepting applications for its Fresh Ideas: Community-Based Approaches to Improve Care for Vulnerable Populations grant program. The purpose of this program is to promote community-based approaches to health and health care problems that interact with social problems. Examples include inadequate housing, poor education and poverty. Priority is given to projects that focus on hard-to-reach populations such as new immigrants and refugees and at-risk adolescents.
Research Proposals on Disparities Issues
Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation seeks to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the care of patients with cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus type 2 and/or depression. To that end, RWJF invites research proposals that offer solutions towards reducing health care disparities. RWJF encourages researchers to include data and analyses in their proposals to help us better understand these disparities related to: sub-ethnic and other marginalized groups (e.g., Mexican, Puerto Rican, Vietnamese and American Indian); and acculturation factors (e.g., generation, years in US, age of migration and language proficiency). RWJF will consider projects of up to $75,000 with a one-year time frame.
State Coverage Initiatives
Through funding from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, State Coverage Initiatives offers both policy planning and demonstration grants. SCI grants are designed to support states in the early stages of planning coverage expansions and those states that have decided on a new coverage expansion mechanism and seek assistance designing and implementing the program. Specific new grant opportunities are announced on the Web site and through the e-newsletter, St@teside; however, states may submit project ideas at any time. For specific info, contact isabel.friedenzohn@academyhealth.org or 202/292-6726
Donors Forum of South Florida on-line database
The new online searchable Donors Forum of South Florida database has up-to-date information about funders in South Florida. This resource— which is also available in hard copy — presents continuously updated information about the giving interests and procedures of funders with a track record of investing in the South Florida area and working collaboratively with others. To order, email leot@donorsforumsf.org or call 305/371-7944.
Directory Of Health Policy Fellowships
This Kaiser directory contains new listings for undergraduates, graduate students and professionals searching for summer, school-year, or post-doctoral positions.
ORGANZATIONS AND SERVICES
Newly posted resources are at the top of the list.
Medicare Rights Center (MRC) has an Rx Hotline for Nonprofit Professionals as one component of its comprehensive independent source of health care information and assistance for older adults and people with disabilities. It helps with understanding or explaining the Medicare prescription drug benefit to clients. Call RxHelp, a national hotline dedicated for nonprofit professionals serving the Medicare population, operated from 10 am to 6 pm EDT. Dial 877/RXHELP-0 (877/794-3570).Other services include: a telephone hotline; a database of case advice; education and training; public policy work; electronic newsletters; and communications with local and national media outlets. To help you understand your Medicare health plan choices, the Medicare Rights Center offers Medicare Interactive (MI), a web-based Medicare counseling tool.
Training Alliance for Communities of Color
This website is from National Health Policy Training Alliance for Communities of Color, a partnership between Families USA, the Joint Center Health Policy Institute (HPI), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, and the National Medical Association (NMA). Their mission is to empower community leaders, elected officials, and journalists from communities of color with pertinent information about health policy developments in order to: expand their capacity to address and catalyze action on crucial health and health care issues; bolster the skills of leaders from communities of color to play a more influential role in shaping and creating health policies that are of relevance to their respective communities; and engage diverse leaders in national health policy development.
Access to Benefits Coalition
The nonprofit ABC is dedicated to ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries with limited incomes know about and make the best use of all available resources for accessing prescription drugs and reducing their costs. ABC is working through local community coalitions to inform beneficiaries and their families, as well as the professionals who serve them, about Medicare Part-D. Extra Help is provided online or in person; find out if you or someone qualifies by going to BenefitsCheckUpRx?. Publications include: Applying for the Low-Income Subsidy: A Tool Kit for Advocates; and Pathways to Success: Meeting the Challenge of Enrolling Medicare Beneficiaries with Limited Incomes
The National Hispanic Resource Help-Line 1/800-473-3003 provides support for Latinos throughout the nation who need information about educational, health and human service providers. To become part of their database, click here.
Southeast Florida Cancer Control Collaborative (SFCCC)
SFCCC works to reduce the cancer burden and cancer disparities in Southeast Florida, including Broward, Indian River, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties. The SFCCC includes representatives from more than 60 public and private organizations, agencies and health care providers, as well as cancer survivor and advocacy groups. SFCCC aims to increase awareness about cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment among populations at high risk. The Collaborative meets quarterly at various locations in the region.
MANUALS, GUIDES, TOOLKITS
Newly posted resources are at the top of the list.
 Free Cover the Uninsured Week 2007 Planning Materials Available
Start planning and promoting activities now—with help from newly updated planning guides! This year, Cover the Uninsured Week comes at a critical juncture in the health coverage debate: After 10 years, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is up for reauthorization in Congress. Our nation's leaders have the opportunity to provide funding to cover the children currently enrolled in SCHIP and expand the program to cover millions more children in need of health coverage. As a result, Cover the Uninsured Week 2007 will focus on the importance of children's health coverage and the success of SCHIP. To help you promote the importance and availability of SCHIP, these guides are now available: Health and Enrollment Fair Planning; Working with the Media; Editorial Placement; Campus Event Planning. Additional Cover the Uninsured Week 2007 materials will be posted.
Five Guidelines for Developing Customer-Friendly Websites
This new Covering Kids & Families publication is intended to help state agencies and other organizations do a
better job of helping people find information on the Web about Medicaid, SCHIP and other government services by producing a customer-friendly site.
Amigos en Salud Online Disparities Toolkit
Pfizer has created a free toolkit to help community health centers reduce racial health disparities. The program, called Amigos en Salud/Friends in Health, involves training community health workers to be a bridge between minority communities and the healthcare system.
Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities: A Quality Improvement Initiative in Medicaid Managed Care ToolkitCenter for Health Care Strategies
The toolkit examines the experiences of a workgroup - comprising 10 Medicaid health plans and a state primary care case management association - that adopted strategies to identify and address racial and ethnic health disparities in birth outcomes and immunizations, asthma care and diabetes care. (January 2007)
New/Updated Resources Medicare Drug Plan Resources
In advance of the 2007 Medicare drug plans open enrollment period beginning Nov. 15, Kaiser Family Foundation has issued a series of new and updated resources based on ongoing research including consumer surveys:
Updated fact sheet providing state-specific data about Medicare drug plan options for 2007, including stand-alone drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans, and information on premiums, gap coverage, and availability to beneficiaries who qualify for full low-income assistance.
Updated Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit fact sheet, with a revised estimate that 4 million people will be affected by the coverage gap in 2006, as well as current enrollment and low-income subsidy participation and updated Medicare per capita drug spending.
Updated Talking About Medicare online consumer guide, reflecting 2007 benefit changes, to help people with Medicare and their families understand options and make decisions based on their personal situations; includes information about financial assistance for those with limited incomes, supplemental insurance options, and Medicare Advantage.
Fact Sheets and Primer on the Uninsured
The Kaiser Family Foundation has collected links to some resources on the topics of health coverage and the nation’s uninsured population to assist you in your work related to these issues:
The Uninsured and Their Access to Care
Covering the Uninsured: Growing Need, Strained Resources
Massachusetts’ New Law to Cover the Uninsured
Women's Health Insurance Coverage
The Uninsured: A Primer
Families USA is offering Making Public Programs Work for Communities of Color: An Action Kit for Community Leaders, from its Minority Health Initiatives Department. The kit provides community leaders with information, tools, and resources to engage in health advocacy and improve the health and well being of their communities. Emphasizing the importance of public programs in reducing racial and ethnic health disparities, the kit contains: a summary and statistics of racial and ethnic health disparities and the role public programs can play in reducing them; an overview of Medicaid (and SCHIP) and Medicare, including their relationships to communities of color; fact sheets on improving health coverage for racial and ethnic minority groups; state and local case studies on health advocacy; advocacy tools including a powerpoint presentation, and lists of organizations and publications. Contact: 202/628-3030 or rpanares@familiesusa.org.
The Medicaid Matters web site is a resource for people working across the country to protect Medicaid, the health insurance that 50 million rely on. It stores a ready-to-use toolkit of messages, materials and dissemination ideas. Users are able to download, at no cost, tested messages emphasizing the importance of Medicaid and the threat now facing the program. Messages are enhanced by high quality, full color photography. One set of materials is designed to be ready to print. Once downloaded, they can be forwarded to any print house or copy shop without any further formatting. The second set of materials is designed so that components of the product can be adapted to suit the needs of that organization or constituency that wishes to use them.
TECHNOLOGY AND AUDIO/VIDEO RESOURCES
Audio Conferences and Webcasts
Dated events listed chronologically; standing webcasts listed last
Archived Webcast of SCHIP Enrollment and Retention Briefing
Nearly three-fourths of America's nine million uninsured children are eligible for either State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) or Medicaid. As Congress begins debating the reauthorization of the program, policy analysts are examining what keeps these children from enrolling. To address these issues, the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) sponsored a briefing Feb. 26 at the Columbus Club, Union Station. Sens. Edward Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, among others, were featured guests.
Health Action 2007 National Grassroots Meeting
You can view the webcasts of plenary speakers (Sen. Barack Obama, Uwe Reinhardt, Sen. Edward Kennedy, and more); peruse the tool kit; meet the consumer health advocates of the year; check out the materials from many of the plenaries and workshops; and browse the many photos that were taken. The slide presentation Resuming the Path to Health Coverage for Children and Parents consists primarily of charts showing the state of health insurance access for families. States have shown renewed enthusiasm for covering the uninsured, especially children, but the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) has also caused some setbacks.
Bridging the Divide: Medicare's Role in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities
This Jan. 29, 2007 event examined a growing body of evidence indicating disparities in quality of care among Medicare beneficiaries of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Panelists also discussed whether and how the Medicare program should use its clout as a health care payer and player to move toward eliminating racial and ethnic disparities. Webcast available through Kaiser Network.
National Town Hall Meeting on Children’s Health Coverage
During Campaign for Children's Health Care's town hall meeting, Senators Max Baucus (D-MT), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Gordon Smith (R-OR) expressed their bipartisan support for expanding children’s health coverage. This bodes well for efforts to achieve health coverage for all kids. An archived Web cast of the 35-minute national town hall meeting is available on the campaign’s Web site.
Media Programming
Web Sites, Web Features & Databases
Newest postings are listed at the top of State and National Web Resources sections below
State Web Resources
Florida Health Insurance Coverage of Children 0-18 (2004-2005)
Kaiser Family Foundation has released information about this on-line resource.
Statehealthfacts.org Updates Data on Medicaid & SCHIP Coverage for Children
Statehealthfacts.org has updated information on eligibility levels for children in Medicaid and SCHIP and parents and pregnant women in Medicaid using survey data from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU). The latest information on Medicaid and SCHIP enrollment practices for pregnant women and children and renewal practices is also now available. Overall SCHIP spending for FY 2006 and Federal SCHIP spending data from FY 1998 through FY 2006 are also now available. Recent additions to the site include new information on children's demographics and health insurance status from analysis of the Census Bureau's March 2005 and 2006 Current Population Surveys. These additions include the distribution of children by race/ethnicity, the distribution of children by citizenship status, and health insurance coverage among low-income children living near poverty.
Florida Association of Community Health Centers (FACHC)
The following resources have recently been added to the FACHC web site:
Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish-speaking Adults (SAHLSA-50) A new health literacy test than can be used to screen for low health literacy among Spanish speakers.
Health Coverage and Access to Care for Hispanics in "New Growth Communities" and "Major Hispanic Centers" A 2006 Report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured
Spanish Language Mental Health Manual for Health Promoters Developed by the California- Mexico Bi-National Health Initiative.
Florida Health Care Website for Consumers
A new Web site for Florida health-care consumers officially launches today, courtesy of the Florida Hospital Association. The site offers links to information on doctors, hospitals and health-care plans as well as checklists to help consumers ask the right questions. It is intended largely as a portal to other, established sites. There are links to sites for Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, among others.
"2006 Kids Count” Report
The annual report measures each state in terms of 10 statistics, including infant mortality, teen birth rate and infants born with low birthweights. The report finds no change in U.S. infant mortality since 2000, less than a percentage point increase to 7.9% in 2003 in the percentage of infants born weighing less than 5.5 pounds and a decrease in the teen birth rate from 48 births per 1,000 girls in 2000 to 42 births per 1,000 in 2003. (6/27/06, Annie E. Casey Foundation)
State of Florida Health Care Consumer Websites
The recently expanded FloridaCompareCare.gov aims to improve care and reduce costs by giving citizens the tools to compare outcomes and prices between health care providers and medical services. Through this website one can see data on certain conditions and procedures related to quality of care, pricing and performance at the state’s hospitals and ambulatory (outpatient) surgery centers. In 2005, Florida became the first state to publicly report infection and mortality rates in each hospital. In July 2006, Florida became the first state to publicly report separate pediatric quality of care data. In addition, adult data can now be broken out specific to ages 65 and over. Additional new breakdowns include types of facilities.
FloridaHealthStat.com provides health care information to assist consumers, health care professionals, and researchers in making well-informed health care decisions and in researching the status of health care in Florida. MyFloridaRx.com provides consumers with the retail prices of the most commonly used prescribed drugs by pharmacy across Florida. For questions or comments regarding any of Florida’s consumer websites, contact 850/922-7036.
Medicaid Applications Online 24/7 and in Neighborhoods
Local partners can direct families to their area sites or online to apply for Medicaid and other benefits. The Web Application is generally preferable as the data makes it into the Florida system more quickly and there is a reduced chance of data entry errors.
Florida KidCare Applications can be completed online
Website Offers Free 24 Hour Health Information to Floridians to address concerns and inquiries
The Florida Department of Health (DOH) Secretary encourages health care consumers to visit www.FLHealthSource.com whenever they need information about a licensed health care professional. DOH’s Division of Medical Quality Assurance (MQA) maintains FLHealthSource.com. The site provides health care consumers with a host of information, including license status, office address, and disciplinary information for all health care professionals licensed in Florida. The site also provides additional information for the five profiled professions –medical doctors, osteopathic physicians, chiropractic physicians, podiatric physicians and advanced registered nurse practitioners (ARNPs).
Statehealthfacts.org provides free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data on all 50 states, covering more than 500 health topics.
Florida Progressive Information Network (FLPIN)
offers a nonpartisan communication system designed to link progressive organizers with progressive activists. Individuals may sign up free of charge to receive alerts on a variety of progressive issues from other organizations participating in the Network. In order to make FLPIN work, it must be used on a regular basis. The more information put in, the more valuable it is as a tool. Link FLPIN to organization websites. A training manual is at www.flpin.net/alert.pdf. For more information or assistance, contact jen@floridahumanist.org
National Web Resources
New Database for Medical Language Access
The Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency has unveiled a first-of-its-kind database designed to
assist physicians and others in providing improved language access and culturally competent health care. With more than 350 initial entries, the searchable, internet-based, free-to-the-public database includes contact information for interpreters, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, public health departments and others that provide health information and services in languages other than English. Users, including physicians, nurses, social service workers, patients and the general public, can search for listings by county, by language, or by type of service.
Fact Sheets on Medicare, Long-Term Care Spending; Medicaid; Long-Term Spending Data
Fact sheets, Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project: The Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project has released two new fact sheets on Medicare and long-term care and Medicaid policy that aims to protect the incomes and resources of spouses of nursing home residents who are trying to enroll in Medicaid. The project also has updated its 2005 national long-term care spending estimates. (February 2007, Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project)
2007 Federal Poverty Guidelines Now Available
The Southern Institute on Children and Families has made available the 2007 Federal Poverty Guidelines. Compiled from the 2007 HHS Poverty Guidelines, these guidelines provide income levels for families at 50%, 100%, 125%, 133%, 150%, 185% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. Information is provided for the continental United States and separately for Alaska and Hawaii.
Women's Health Insurance Coverage Fact Sheet
As the cost of health insurance continues to rise, women in particular may face difficult challenges affording coverage because they are disproportionately low-income and can have poorer access to employer-based insurance. This fact sheet describes the major sources of health insurance coverage for women ages 18-64, including employer-sponsored insurance and Medicaid. It provides information on the more than 17 million women who are uninsured and summarizes the major policy challenges facing women in the health insurance sector. (Feb 2007, Kaiser Family Foundation)
Update on State Pharmacy Programs
State Pharmaceutical Assistance Programs: A Chartbook--Updated and Revised, presents a wealth of data on state drug assistance programs throughout the country. In addition to eligibility requirements, benefit design, and program administration, the chartbook provides details on the most recent annual enrollment, utilization, and program expenditures for these programs. It also serves as a baseline for comparing and contrasting program offerings with the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit. You can also download the charts to create a PowerPoint presentation. (Jan. 2007, Commonwealth Fund)
Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health
The Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) presents the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health. This resource is a no-cost, easy-to-use website that puts national, state, and regional survey findings right at your fingertips. You'll find: interactive data search tools; personalized technical help by email or telephone and information and examples to help you use data more effectively.
Metropolitan Quality of Life Data
Diversitydata.org allows visitors to explore how metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. perform on a diverse range of social measures via a dataset of socioeconomic indicators in the form of tables, thematic maps, and customizable reports. The data cover various racial/ethnic, income and nativity groups. Multiple data sources have been used to show data for numerous domains such as housing opportunities, economic opportunities, residential integration, and health.
New HHS Web Site Promoting Long-Term Care Planning
The National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information Web site provides comprehensive information about long-term care planning, services and financing options, along with tools to help people begin the planning process. The clearinghouse Web site is designed to increase public awareness about the risks and costs of long-term care and the potential need for services, and to provide objective information to help people plan for the future. The new Web site also supports the "Own Your Future" education campaign, a joint federal-state initiative designed to increase consumer awareness about planning for long-term care.
New Online Medical Dictionary Reference Tool
MediLexicon International Limited, corporate owners of Medical News Today, was pleased to announce on Nov. 11 the launch of a new medical dictionary tool. This dictionary search is a joint collaboration between MediLexicon and Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, who have provided the data.
Online Interactive Medicare Advantage Comparison Tools
Before making the switch to Medicare Advantage, beneficiaries can compare plans to determine their needs. Then they can review each plan using the “Guidelines for Considering Medicare Advantage” from the Center for Medicare Advocacy. More information about Medicare Advantage managed care plans is online at Medicare.gov. More recent FAQs on private fee-for-service plans is available through CMS.
Online Parent SCHIP Information
To assist in the growing problem of America's uninsured children, medical insurance hub HealthInsuranceFinders has added information to assist parents in finding and understanding all of their health insurance options: a State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) section with an overview of State Children Health Insurance Programs for each state.
State By State National Survey of Children’s Health Data Resource Center Dataset
The DRC Child Health Indicators version of the 2003 NSCH Dataset is now available. Added to the data sets are the 65 Child Health Indicators for the DRC online data query and the National Chartbook. Also included are Healthy People 2010 relevant indicators and key socio-demographic variables.
Comprehensive source of Hispanic data
Recent release from the Census Bureau with data and linkage to sources covering many areas.
Rural Communities Statistics and Information
The Rural Assistance Center has added to its Web site a new resource providing continuously updated demographics and statistics, documents and resources and contacts for all 50 states. RAC said the federally funded "State Resources" addition is designed to help health care providers and human services representatives in rural communities with activities such as locating and competing for funding opportunities and networking.
American Community Census Data Online
The new poverty, income, and health insurance data from the U.S. Census Bureau released on August 29, 2006 is available online. This year, it has more state and local data than in previous annual surveys.
State Level Data on Health Coverage & the Uninsured
Kaiser Family Foundation's interactive web tool includes the health insurance status of the state’s population (those with various types of health coverage or who are uninsured), and demographic information (such as income, race/ethnicity, age, gender) for those who are uninsured, have employer-based insurance, or Medicaid. Information about Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries can be found in those respective categories. Find data from other categories on the website that relate to Health Coverage & Uninsured.
The Johns Hopkins INFO Project's New OneSource Database
This provides one-stop access to over 360,000 resources and six separate databases with a single mouse click or search term. OneSource users can quickly search for reports, articles, documents, posters and pamphlets, photos, web sites, Q&As and news articles through a single interface. An enhanced search and browse capability makes finding global family planning, reproductive health and population information faster and more simple than ever. Enter your terms in the search box. Select the resource type you want to look for, or search all six databases at once, and click Search.
Uninsured Tutorial, Module, and Reference Library
This KaiserEDU.org page contains comprehensive resources including links to key research, policy analysis, and the latest data and statistics on the uninsured.
Health Care Coverage in America: Understanding the Issues and Proposed Solutions includes a corresponding PowerPoint presentation. (Cover the Uninsured)
Immigrant Health Policy Reference Library
This new compendium summarizes data and research on immigrants’ health coverage and access to care. The library also includes a list of organizations that conduct analysis on the impact of major health policies on immigrants and presents research on specific populations, including Latino, African and Asian immigrants.
Medicaid Fact Sheets Tool
Compare your state's Medicaid program and the population it serves to other states and the nation by visiting Kaiser's new interactive online State Medicaid Fact Sheets tool.
Interactive Tools on Medicaid
The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured presents the State Medicaid Fact Sheets and the Medicaid Benefits Online Database, two interactive tools featuring the latest key data, information and services provided for each state’s Medicaid program. Both tools allow for easy access to the data which can then be printed, saved and emailed.
2007 Federal Poverty Guidelines Now Available
The Southern Institute on Children and Families has made available the 2007 Federal Poverty Guidelines. Compiled from the 2007 HHS Poverty Guidelines, these guidelines provide income levels for families at 50%, 100%, 125%, 133%, 150%, 185% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. Information is provided for the continental United States and separately for Alaska and Hawaii.
Healthcare Coverage Options Database: Assistance for Obtaining Health Coverage
This Web site provides information on health insurance options for low-income U.S. residents. The site includes comprehensive information on large-scale programs like Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and the federal Health Care Tax Credit Program, as well as hundreds of smaller state, federal, and private programs.
Videos
Collateral Damage: Bad Medicine in Tennessee
In 2005, when Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee announced he would reform his state’s Medicaid program,
people took him at his word. Little did they know that Bredesen’s idea of reform meant cutting 190,000 people off the program almost overnight. The size and speed of the cuts were unprecedented; the suffering they caused was immeasurable. The sickest, neediest people were denied medical care while the nation sat by and watched, and the Governor boasted to other heads of states about his success reigning in the rising cost of health care. This intense, moving film exposes the injustice that occurred in Tennessee and its implications for Medicaid cuts nationwide. In the richest nation in the world, where people die every day because they lack access to health care, the disparities revealed in this film are chilling.
Covering Kids & Families Video
Parents' Action for Children, a 2006 national supporter, has created a flash animation video in partnership with Covering Kids & Families that promotes the availability of low-cost and free health care coverage for eligible families. Parents’ Action for Children plans to promote the video to their membership of more than 35,000 parents across the country who are working to improve the lives of children and families in their communities. View the video today! For more information, contact 202/338-7227 or coveringkidsandfamilies@gmmb.com
Problems with the Medicare Drug Program and How to Fix Them: Video
This 14-minute video produced by Families USA features trusted newsman Walter Cronkite discussing the problems within the new Medicare prescription drug benefit and offering solutions for the Part D program. The video offers an authoritative look at Medicare’s prescription coverage. First-hand experiences come from retirees from across the country, who offer an up-close look at the troubles the new drug benefit has generated, from the headaches of sorting through dozens of plans to the financial tolls the program will take on so-called beneficiaries. A dedicated community pharmacist shares his insights on the roll-out of Part D and knowledgeable consumer advocates analyze the politics at the core of the creation of the Medicare drug program. Watch the Video Online or Request a Copy
PERIODICALS AND BOOKS
Florida Health News, free non-profit news service, now online
The Florida Health Policy Center has announced the launch of an independent, free, non-profit news service: Florida Health News Inc. FHN will post health-related stories reported around the state, highlight the Florida impact of national stories, and track state health legislation. The news service also will feature original coverage of major health policy developments and a free Monday-through-Friday news service. You can visit the site and subscribe to the e-mail news service by clicking on the link: www.FloridaHealthNews.org. To send your comments, story tips and news of conferences and other events, or get more information, contact pat.curtis@floridahealthnews.org or 850/556-1668.
New National Child Survey Research Results: Pediatrics special volume highlights NSCH research articles
The Pediatrics special volume issue illustrates national and state findings from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). In this issue, there are fifteen articles that provide critical information for policy makers and others concerned with ensuring the best care and health outcomes for children. To preview these articles visit the Data Resource Center for the National Survey of Children's Health home page and click on the Pediatrics link under New Publication.The Data Resource Center features an easy-to-use interactive data query that allows users to search, view and compare NSCH results at state, regional and national levels, stratified by selected demographic characteristics including age, race, household income, insurance type, and special health care needs status. (February 2007)
Kaiser Health Disparities Report: A Weekly Look at Race, Ethnicity and Health
This free, weekly report from kaisernetwork.org and the Kaiser Family Foundation, synthesizes news coverage from hundreds of print and broadcast news sources related to health and health care issues that effect racial and ethnic communities. The report also highlights new studies and journal articles, initiatives, developments in the field, and upcoming events.
Covering Health Issues - A Sourcebook for Journalists
The newest edition of the Alliance for Health Reform's 300-page guide, "Covering Health Issues," is now available for downloading. The guide is useful for anyone interested in health policy issues. Each chapter contains key facts, an overview, expert sources with telephone numbers, story ideas, helpful websites and a discussion of current policy proposals.
REPORTS AND STUDIES
New Listings
New Listings: Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP
IMPROVING CHILDREN'S HEALTH: A Chartbook about the Roles of Medicaid and SCHIP
This publication provides 30 graphs summarizing current information about health insurance coverage and the health needs of low-income children, as well as the effects of Medicaid and SCHIP coverage on children's health. (2007 Edition, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Toward Real Medicaid Reform
In this paper the authors describe and develop several options for Medicaid reform that would expand coverage, provide fiscal relief to states, shift responsibility for some or all of the care of dual eligibles to the federal government, and eliminate or restructure disproportionate-share hospital (DSH) payments. (2/23/07, Health Affairs)
New Listings: Federal Budget
Congress Has a Number of Options to Pay for Extending Health Coverage to More Low-Income Children
There is growing consensus that SCHIP reauthorization should make substantial progress toward covering all uninsured low-income children. The cost, however, will be substantial. Immediately enrolling the roughly 6 million children who are eligible for publicly funded coverage but are unenrolled would cost the federal government more than $50 billion over five years. In the House and, most likely, in the Senate as well, SCHIP reauthorization legislation will be subject to “pay-as-you-go” rules, which require that the cost of increases in mandatory programs (such as SCHIP) be fully offset through entitlement reductions and/or revenue increases. Some have argued that the goal of reaching many of the eligible uninsured children should be shelved because the cost cannot be “paid for.” In fact, however, ample offsets exist on both the spending and revenue sides of the budget to cover the costs several times over — if there is political will to pursue them. (3/8/07, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Options Exist For Offsetting the Cost Of Extending Health Coverage To More Low-Income Children (2/26/07, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
CBO Estimates States Will Face Federal SCHIP Shortfalls of $13.4 Billion Over Next 5 Years
On February 23, the Congressional Budget Office issued estimates of the federal funding shortfalls states will face if annual funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is frozen at the current funding level of $5 billion a year, as is assumed under the budget “baseline.” Since SCHIP began, the number of children without insurance has fallen, particularly in low-income families. Still, according to the most recent CPS estimates, about 9 million children lack health insurance, a figure that other Urban Institute research indicates may be on the rise. Only 25 percent of SCHIP enrollees live in families with access to employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), far below the 40 percent figure assumed by the Congressional Budget Office in 1997. (2/26/07, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
New Listings: Health Insurance, Health Costs
The Uninsured Experience Worse Outcomes
A new study commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation and authored by Dr. Jack Hadley of The Urban Institute documents that people who are uninsured receive less care and have worse outcomes following an accident or the onset of a new chronic condition than those with insurance. The study -- based on analysis of eight years of data and over 30,000 observations -- finds that following an accidental injury, the uninsured were less likely than the insured to receive any medical care. (3/14/07, Kaiser Family Foundation)
Whose Kids Are Covered? A State-by-State Look at Uninsured Children
New research data shows lower-income families are often doubly squeezed: They are less likely to be offered health coverage by their employers, and less able to afford it on their own. View the entire report or the press release. (March 2007, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
Medicaid: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for School Readiness
Medicaid’s child health program, Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT), emphasizes health promotion and disease prevention as vehicles to ensure that children are ready for school and able to succeed in life. Required components of preventive care can be mapped to specific health outcomes that are important attributes of school readiness and prerequisites for educational success. The federal government and states can take specific action to assure that children receive all of the health care services, including preventive services, necessary to promote their optimal health and development and, thus, to maximize their future productivity. (March/April 2007, Health Affairs)
Coverage Counts: Supporting Health and Opportunity for Children
Nearly one in nine children in the US is without health insurance. These children are at a disadvantage that extends into adulthood...Failing to get timely care can exacerbate acute and chronic conditions and may lead to long-term adverse health effects. (February 2007, AHA Trendwatch)
New Listings: Health Equity Issues
CBO Estimates That States Will Face Federal Schip Shortfalls Of $13.4 Billion Over Next Five Years
On February 23, the Congressional Budget Office issued estimates of the federal funding shortfalls states will face if annual funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is frozen at the current funding level of $5 billion a year, as is assumed under the budget “baseline.” Among eligible children in fair or poor health, 80 percent are enrolled. Since SCHIP began, the number of children without insurance has fallen, particularly in low-income families. Still, according to the most recent CPS estimates, about 9 million children lack health insurance, a figure that other Urban Institute research indicates may be on the rise. Only 25 percent of SCHIP enrollees live in families with access to employer-sponsored insurance, far below the 40 percent figure assumed by the Congressional Budget Office in 1997. (2/26/07, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities)
New Listings: Other Health Issues
The State of Aging and Health in America 2007 ReportBy 2030, the number of older Americans will have more than doubled to 70 million, or one in every five Americans...Chronic diseases exact a particularly heavy health and economic burden on older adults due to associated long-term illness, diminished quality of life, and greatly increased health care costs. Although the risk of disease and disability clearly increases with advancing age, poor health is not an inevitable consequence of aging. (3/8/07, Centers for Disease Control)
80% of U.S. adults are in favor of requiring some or all employers to provide paid sick time to their employees, and similar numbers (78%) say employers who don't give their employees paid sick time pay for it in other ways. (3/7/07, Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Healthcare Poll)
Florida Reports
Expanding Medicaid Eligibility for Pregnant Women
(By Carol Brady of Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions)
This one-page report responds to these questions: Why is health care coverage important during pregnancy?How does Medicaid impact health care coverage for pregnant women? Why do we need to expand Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women? How can Florida expand coverage for pregnant women? Expanded eligibility would leverage federal funding for the uninsured, increasing access to prenatal care for at-risk women and matching SCHIP Medicaid eligibility for infants through age one. Expanding Medicaid coverage for uninsured women up to 200% of the federal poverty level would provide needed support to the working, uninsured families for whom pregnancy-related health care is a significant burden.
Florida Children’s Action Agenda 2007/2008 Available Online
Florida state Senators Nan Rich and Durell Peaden and Representatives Loranne Ausley and J.C. Planas have released the final recommendations of the 2006 Florida Children’s Summit. The Summit participants learned a lot, and the next Summit in Fall 2008 will reflect that. In 2008 they will spend substantially more time in workshops hashing out recommendations and will secure experienced workshop facilitators who are knowledgeable about the topics they are facilitating. Also, they will institute a process to ensure that when leaving the 2008 Summit - or very shortly thereafter - all will know the Summit recommendations.
Miami-Dade and Monroe County 2006 Health Profiles
Health Council of South Florida has released downloadable Health Profiles that provide answers to 10 commonly asked questions about county demographics, health needs, and resources.
Florida Health Insurance Coverage of Children 0-18 (2004-2005)
Kaiser Family Foundation has released information about this on-line resource.
Medicaid Changes: What will they mean for Broward and Duval counties, and beyond?
This document is Briefing #1 by researchers at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute engaged in a two-year evaluation of the Medicaid reform pilot counties for both Florida counties. The evaluation is assessing how these changes affect Medicaid beneficiaries’ ability to access needed care as well as the impact on community health providers.(September 2006, Georgetown University Health Policy Institute)
Report looks at uninsured in Florida
This report from the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy at FIU documents and breaks down Florida's uninsured figures, finding 18.5% of the total Florida population uninsured. The report looks at employment and industry data related to lack of coverage, and proposes a partial solution.
Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP
VA has more drugs in formulary than Medicare D
“The VA actually has more drugs (4,778) on its formulary than are potentially covered under Medicare Part D (4,300—not all plans cover all these drugs). In addition, the VA covers nonformulary drugs prescribed according to evidence-based guidelines, bringing the total number of drugs dispensed by the VA to 6,194. By contrast, people with Medicare must navigate a complex appeals process to obtain coverage of nonformulary drugs. Part D plans deny 95 percent of appeals. The Institute of Medicine concluded in 2000 that the VA formulary is ‘not overly restrictive.’ This finding is supported by statistics that show the VA does a better [job] in using prescription drugs to control their patients’ diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension than private Medicare plans.” (February 2007, Medicare Rights Center, Public Citizen and National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices )
Medicare Part D Plan Characteristics
This provides new state-specific summary data about available Medicare drug benefit options. It illustrates the number of stand-alone plans with coverage in the "doughnut hole," as well as the number of plans available at no cost to qualifying beneficiaries.
Medicaid Costs Are Growing More Slowly than Costs for Medicare or Private Insurance
Health care in the United States has become very expensive, and health care costs in the private and public sectors alike have been rising at a rapid clip. However, new data shows that Medicaid expenditures did not grow at all in fiscal year 2006 and are expected to grow only modestly in 2007.
Uninsured Children Are Eligible for the State Coverage
The decade-old State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has signed up close to 70 percent of its target population, a new Urban Institute report estimated, but 1.8 million eligible children nationwide are yet to be enrolled. Federal funding, about $5 billion this year, will have to increase substantially if these children are to join the approximately 3.9 million children now with SCHIP coverage. (2/9/07, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
Coverage Patterns Among SCHIP-Eligible Children and Their Parents
This brief uses the 2005 Current Population Survey to examine national patterns of coverage among families with SCHIP eligible children. Key findings are that: close to 2 million uninsured children are eligible for SCHIP, the majority of SCHIP enrollees could not be enrolled in an employer plan that covers their parents, and almost 40% of SCHIP enrollees lives with an uninsured parent. This implies that federal funding will have to be increased substantially to cover the remaining eligible but uninsured children and that many children stand to lose coverage altogether if federal funds are inadequate to meet existing program needs. (2/9/07, Urban Institute)
SCHIP Program Enrollment: June 2005 Update
tracks changes in enrollment in the State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) from June 2004 to June 2005. Economic improvements allowed many states to relax restrictions on enrollment, resulting in a net increase in enrollment nationwide. Some states that still have heavy restrictions continued to show large decreases in enrollment.
Election Survey Finds Broad Support for SCHIP
notes that more than eight in 10 voters favor increasing spending on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). This summary outlines the results of the survey and describes the outcomes of other public opinion surveys about health coverage for children. (December 2006, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured)
The State Children's Health Insurance Program: Past, Present, and Future
At the end of the 2007 fiscal year, congressional authorization for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is set to expire. For SCHIP, the reauthorization process--historically a chance to review, refine, and revamp programs--will take place at a time when the uninsured rate for children is once again on the rise. This new report examines the array of policy options that Congress is likely to consider for SCHIP, a program widely hailed for assisting children whose families have too much income to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance. In addition to reviewing the program's history, goals, and performance, it describes how eligibility, benefits, and financing might be modified during reauthorization; it also discusses the policy and political implications of change.
SCHIP Experience: Trends in Access to Medicaid and SCHIP Coverage
With states generally in better financial shape since the fiscal crisis earlier in the decade, many have expressed interest in improving access to their Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs. A new 50-state survey shows that one-third of states (17) increased access to health coverage in 2006, and no state cut income eligibility in Medicaid and SCHIP for the first time in four years. (1/9/07, Kaiser Foundation)
New Medicaid Citizenship Documentation Requirement is Taking a Toll: States Report Enrollment Is Down and Administrative Costs Are Up
A new federal law that states were required to implement July 1 is creating a barrier to health-care coverage for U.S. citizens — especially children — who are eligible for health insurance through Medicaid. The new law, a provision of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, requires U.S. citizens to present proof of their citizenship and identity when they apply for, or seek to renew, their Medicaid coverage. Prior to enactment of the law, U.S. citizens applying for Medicaid were permitted to attest to their citizenship, under penalty of perjury. In the six months following implementation of the new requirement, states are beginning to report marked declines in Medicaid enrollment, particularly among low-income children. States also are reporting significant increases in administrative costs as a consequence of the requirement. (2/2/07, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Federal Budget/Health Care
President's Budget Would Cut Deeply into Important Public Services and Adversely Affect States
This new analysis finds that: The President’s budget would reduce funding for most parts of the domestic discretionary budget below the 2007 funding levels, adjusted for inflation. The cuts would start in 2008 and grow deeper in each of the four succeeding years; The proposed reductions would effectively shift billions of dollars in costs on to states, requiring them to scale back key public services or raise taxes to plug the holes left by the federal cuts; The reductions would come from a wide range of areas, including education, environmental protection, community development, and key supports for low-income families; At the same time, the budget would permanently extend virtually all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Extending the tax cuts would cost much more each year than all of the proposed discretionary program cuts would save. (2/21/07, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
The Administration Again Proposes To Shift Federal Medicaid Costs to States
The report examines proposed cuts to federal Medicaid funding in President Bush's fiscal year 2008 budget proposal and how reductions in federal funding would affect states. The report finds that to address funding cuts, states would have to reduce Medicaid benefits, eligibility or payments to providers; redistribute funding from other state programs to replace federal money; or increase taxes. The report also discusses the implications of such actions. (2/15/07, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Bush Administration Budget Revealed
The President’s FY 2008 budget was released. It contains domestic discretionary program cuts which begin in 2008 grow to $114 billion by 2012, the five-year period covered in the budget. At the same time, tax breaks for the wealthy are made permanent. The President claims on paper to balance the budget by 2012. He achieves this by excluding the real cost of the tax cuts and making unrealistic assumptions about revenues and economic growth. (2/16/06, Coalition on Human Needs Report)
President's Budget Would Provide Less than Half the Funds States Need to Maintain SCHIP Enrollment
Under the President's budget, federal SCHIP funds would fall a total of $7 billion short of what will be needed to sustain states’ current programs. The likely result of this shortfall would be fewer individuals covered through SCHIP and more people who are uninsured. While the President’s budget for SCHIP reauthorization acknowledges the need for additional funding above the levels assumed in the budget baseline: it does not provide sufficient funding for states simply to sustain their existing programs; it erects fiscal incentives for states to cease providing SCHIP coverage to children with modest incomes and low-income parents; and it does not encourage states to continue making progress toward covering more uninsured children. (2/22/07, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities)
States' SCHIP Enrollment and Spending Experiences and Considerations for Reauthorization
SCHIP enrollment increased rapidly during the program's early years, but has stabilized over the past several years...Many states adopted innovative outreach strategies and simplified and streamlined their enrollment processes in order to reach as many eligible children as possible...SCHIP spending was initially low, but now threatens to exceed available funding. (2/15/07, GAO Testimony)
Effect of Tying Eligibility for Health Insurance Subsidies to the Federal Poverty Level
Premiums for private health insurance coverage have doubled for families and increased by 86 percent for single coverage over the past decade, while the federal poverty level has increased only about 20 percent during the same period. (February 2007, Kaiser Family Foundation)
Medicaid Spending Sustainable
Fears that Medicaid spending is growing uncontrollably are unfounded and fundamental changes to the entitlement program could help eliminate interstate variations in benefits and help states cope with rising health costs, two studies find. (February 2007, Kaiser Family Foundation)
Health Insurance, Health Costs
America's Health Care Bill To Double, Pass $4 Trillion by 2016
The cost of taking care of America's health is set to double over the next ten years to an annual bill of over 4 trillion dollars according to a new report by federal economics experts. This means that by the year 2016, nearly 20 cents of every dollar earned in the US economy will be spent on health care. The report puts the current spending on America's health at 2.1 trillion dollars per year (based on 2006 estimates). This represents 16 cents in every dollar earned in the US economy. However, the report's authors, comprising economists, actuaries and statisticians from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the two government schemes that foot most of the US health care bill, say the trend is going to rise again to an estimated 19.6 per cent of GDP by the year 2016. 21 (Feb 2007, Health Affairs)
Employers Expect 8% Increase In Health Care Costs This Year
Employer health care costs last year increased by 8%, and companies expect the same rate of growth this year and in 2008, according to a new survey reporting responses from 573 employers with at least 1,000 employees. According to the survey, more employers said they have begun to offer programs to help employees maintain healthy lifestyles in an effort to reduce health care costs. The survey found that 72% of respondents said they offer employees health risk evaluations, compared with 66% last year. In addition, the survey found that 23% of respondents said they offer onsite health clinics and that 14% of respondents said they offer onsite pharmacies. (2/22/07, AP)
The Uninsured and the Affordability of Health Insurance Coverage
indicates that more than half of the nation's uninsured are ineligible for public programs and do not have enough resources to purchase coverage themselves. Childless adults made up the largest block of those who are uninsured and ineligible for public coverage, which the study attributes to a lack of eligibility for public programs such as Medicaid. (Jan/Feb 2007, Health Affairs)
Uninsured in America: Problems and Possible Solutions
The United States is the only major industrialised nation without universal health insurance, and coverage has deteriorated in the past six years. The consequences are increasingly well known: inequities in access to care, avoidable mortality and poor quality care, financial burdens on people who are uninsured or underinsured, and lost economic productivity. The US spends twice as much on health care as the median industrialised nation but does not systematically achieve the best quality care. What are the prospects for reform? (2/17/07, BMJ)
Insurance Premium Cost-Sharing and Coverage Too Expensive
One of the many reasons an individual may be uninsured is that she or he decides an employer's offer of health insurance is too expensive. Several studies have noted the likelihood that a worker will decline an employer's offer of health insurance increases with the amount he or she is required to contribute. Alternatively, employees may obtain coverage through a spouse, opt for publicly provided coverage if eligible, or decide to do without coverage entirely. (February 2007, KFF Issue Brief)
Nearly Half Of U.S. Adults Do Not Trust President Bush To Improve Health Care System
Almost half of U.S. adults do not trust President Bush to improve the health care system, according to a recent Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive poll, the Wall Street Journal reports. The online poll, conducted between Feb. 7 and 9, asked about the degree to which they trust Bush to develop policies to improve the health care system, 49% of respondents said "not at all," and 16% said "not much," the poll found. About 18% of respondents said they trust Bush "to some extent" to develop policies to improve the health care system, and 9% said they trust him "a great deal," according to the poll. The poll also found that half of respondents trust Democrats "a great deal" or "to some extent" to develop policies to improve the health care system, compared with 28% who said they trust Republicans to the same degree (2/21/07, Wall Street Journal)
The Economic Costs of Poverty in the United States: Subsequent Effects of Children Growing Up Poor
This report found that the costs of children growing up poor to the U.S. economy are approximately $500 illion a year, or nearly 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These costs occur because of reduced productivity, higher costs of crime, and increased health costs. The report suggests that, while programs to reduce poverty have costs, doing nothing to alleviate poverty is expensive. Investing taxpayer dollars to lift children out of poverty is the right thing to do for many reasons, and economic growth is one of them. (Jan 007, Center for American Progress)
Children Left Behind: How Metropolitan Areas Are Failing America's Children
Across American, black and Hispanic children face particularly sever challenges, especially compared to white and Asian children. Not only do black and Hispanic children live in families that experience many disadvantages, but disparities among individuals and families are exacerbated by vast inequalities in neighborhood and should environments...Yet the very conditions that contribute to these inequalities suggest some possible policy solutions. (Jan 2007, diversitydata.org)
Cumulative Social Disadvantage and Child Health
The accumulation of social disadvantage among children was strongly associated with poorer child health and having insurance did not reduce the observed health disparities. (Pediatrics, vol 117, No. 4)
State Strategies to Expand Health Insurance Coverage: Trends and Lessons for Policymakers
Our employer-based health insurance system is crumbling—with the result that there are more uninsured people with less access to needed health services. In 2005, the number of uninsured climbed to 47 million, the result of a steady increase since 2000. Even more disturbing are the present trends that show the number of uninsured could reach 56 million by 2013. Many state policy leaders, frustrated by the lack of federal action on the problem of the uninsured, have taken matters into their own hands, and the result is a trend toward health care reform at the state level. The latest round of state reforms, most of them enacted or proposed in 2006, presents a variety of approaches to covering the uninsured. (2/7/07, Commonwealth Foundation)
How Higher Premiums Lead More Workers to Opt Out of Employer Health Coverage
As policy discussions to expand coverage for the uninsured consider what is affordable for low-income and moderate-income people, a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation documents how workers are less likely to sign up for health insurance from their employer when they must pay a larger share of its cost. The results suggest that many workers will forego their employer's coverage and could end up without any health insurance if required to pay too much of its cost. (2/7/07, Kaiser Family Foundation)
Study Urges End to 'Archaic' Principle of Cost-Sharing
One of the premises behind "consumer-driven health care" is that overall health costs won't rise as quickly if patients are prodded to shop for better value by requiring them to pay a significant share of their medical expenses. But what if the way benefits are designed fails to steer them to the products and services that offer the best value? Fixing that problem is the key that will help unlock the savings potential of consumer-driven health care. (1/30/07, CQ HealthBeat)
Borrowing to Stay Healthy
Report documents how low and middle income households are turning to credit cards to pay for medical care...While uninsured respondents had the highest levels of credit care debt, even respondents with health insurance were not shielded from the medical debt problem. These findings, combined with the industry trend of increasing deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, call into question whether it is prudent to rely on borrowing as a method to pay for needed health care. (January 2007, The Access Project)
Health Equity Issues
What Did the Doctor Say?: Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety
Far too often, ordinary citizens are placed at risk for unsafe care because important health care information is communicated using medical jargon and unclear language that exceed their literacy skills. This paper frames the existing communications gap between patients and caregivers as a series of challenges involving literacy, language, and culture, and suggests multiple steps that need to be taken to narrow or even close this gap. (2/7/07, Joint Commission)
Contraceptive Use and the Poor: A Matter of Choice?
From the "Health for All" declaration made at Alma Alta in 1978 to the recently created Commission on Social
Determinants of Health, a recurrent theme is health equity, whereby all segments of society should have equal access to and reap the benefits of health-enhancing interventions. Since 1978, a substantial literature has addressed health equity, much of it relating to the gap between the high rhetorical priority given health equity and its programmatic neglect. Contrastingly, much less has been written about equity in family planning...[This] article...goes a long way toward filling this imbalance in attention. (2/6/07, PLoS Medicine)
New Report Shows Decline in Stillbirths; Racial Disparities Persist
The rate of fetal deaths, also known as stillbirths, occurring at 20 weeks of gestation or more declined substantially between 1990 and 2003, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although fetal mortality rates declined among all racial and ethnic groups from 1990-2003, the fetal mortality rate for non-Hispanic black women was more than double that of non-Hispanic white women (11.56 per 1,000 vs. 4.94 per 1,000). (2/21/07, CDC)
Poverty in America: Economic Research Shows Adverse Impacts on Health Status and Other Social Conditions as well as the Economic Growth Rate
This new GAO report includes research connecting poorer health, crime, and low educational attainment, and hat all of these are associated with reduced economic growth. (Jan 2007, GAO)
Key Facts: Race, Ethnicity and Medical Care, 2007 Update
This updated quick reference source on health disparities presents the best available data and analysis, ncluding data on the uninsured and access to care by race/ethnicity as well as information about the isproportionate effect that specific conditions such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and asthma have on racial and thnic minority populations in the U.S. New in the 2007 Key Facts are demographic data on the racial/ethnic minority population in each state and the U.S. territories. This edition of Key Facts also includes data from the National Healthcare Disparities Report, examining changes in health care disparities over time. (Jan 2007,
Kaiser Family Foundation)
National Healthcare Disparities Report, 2006
The 2006 NHDR uses the same measures of quality as its companion National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR) to monitor the Nation's annual progress toward eliminating disparities in health care. Racial/ethnic group comparison focus on 22 core measures of quality and 6 core measures of access that support reliable estimates for Whites, Blacks, Asians, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and Hispanics; income group comparisons highlight 17 core quality measures and 6 core access measures.
America's Health Rankings: A Call to Action for People and their Communities
The United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention?, have released this 2006 edition, to stimulate public conversation concerning health in our states, as well as provide information to facilitate citizen participation. Participation in all elements is encouraged: personal behaviors, community environment, clinical care and public and health policies. Florida's rank among states went from 40 in 2005 to 41 in 2006.
Other Health Issues
Health, United States, 2006
This 30th report on the health status of the nation is submitted by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to the President and Congress of the United States in compliance with Section 308 of the Public Health Service Act. The 559-page report was compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics served in a review capacity. The Health, United States series presents national trends in health statistics. Each report includes an executive summary, highlights, a chartbook, trend tables, extensive appendixes, and an index. Contents include: Fertility, Natality, Life Expectancy and Mortality; Health Behaviors, Status, Risk Factors, Determinants and Measures; Health Care Access, Utilization, System Influences, Expenditures, Resources and Personnel; Health Insurance Coverage and Payors; Uninsured Population; Age, Race and Ethnicity and Poverty; Alcohol and Drug Use; Physical Activity and Limitations; Dental Care and Access; and a Special Section on Pain. (November 2006, HHS, CDC, NHCS)
NATIONAL EVENTS AND NOTICES
March 16, 2007
CONFERENCES AND EVENTS
NICHQ 6th Annual Forum for Improving Children's Health Care
March 19-21 San Francisco
This year's National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality Annual Forum features more than 30 workshop sessions, two scientific sessions, 50 storyboards showcasing improvement, and seven pre-conference "exploratoriums." The exploratoriums include "The Essential Role of Self-Assessment in Achieving Cultural and Linguistic Competence: Tools and Processes for Health Care Providers and Organizations" and "Transforming Well-Child Care for the 21st Century."
Facing Race
March 22-24 New York City
This conference will bring together key policy advocates, academics, researchers, organizers and activists interested in exploring innovative strategies and successful models for changing public policy to produce more racial equity. The persistence of deep racial disparities in an array of areas--such as education, employment, health care and housing--points to the need for more strategies and new policies to address systemic inequities. This conference hopes to unite the movement by building bridges across issues and communities to amplify the concerns of communities of color in the intellectual, policy and popular debates that lie ahead.
Community Benefit 101: the Nuts and Bolts of Planning and Reporting Community Benefit
April 2007 San Francisco
Catholic Health Association, leader in the community benefit field for 20 years, is offering a seminar that covers the basics of community benefit in not-for-profit health care. This event presents a valuable introduction for persons new to the topic and a useful review for those who are already doing the work of community benefit planning an reporting.
Mobilizing Partnerships for Social Change
April 11-14 Toronto
This is the 10th Anniversary Conference of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health. CCPH promotes health through partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions.
5th Annual Integrative Medicine for Healthcare Organizations Conference
April 12-14 San Diego
Health Forum and the American Hospital Association invite you to this two-and-a-half day program, customized to provide you and your team with top-notch educational sessions, in-depth case studies, skill building workshops, onsite visits to successful integrative medicine centers, a cutting-edge poster and exhibit forum and ample time for networking. Information on the educational program will be available in late fall 2006.
Institute for Public Health & Faith Collaborations
April 15-19 Memphis, TN
The Fifth National Institute for Public Health and Faith Collaborations is holding this training event for faith and health leaders. Applications are being accepted for 8 TEAMS of four to five persons.
Bridging the Health Care Divide: Research and Programs to Eliminate Cancer Disparities
April 18-20 New Orleans
This conference of the American Cancer Society seeks to bring together researchers, community groups, physicians, nurses, social workers, public health leaders, lay persons, advocates, and policy makers to describe successful, sustainable models to eliminate cancer disparities.
7th Annual Diversity Challenge at Boston College: Race and Culture Intersections in Scientific Research and Mental Health Service Delivery for Children, Adolescents, and Families
Proposal submission deadline: April 21
October 2007
Presentations should focus on developments in research, professional practice, education or social justice initiatives as they pertain to promoting the mental health and redressing the mental health disparities for racial and ethnic minority children, adolescents, and families. Researchers, practitioners, educators, medical service providers, employee assistance personnel, government agencies, spiritual healers, and providers of community services are encouraged to submit proposals.
Improving Quality of Care
April 23-24 Washington, DC
The 4th Annual Leadership Summit on Health Disparities will assemble clinicians, members of congress, patient advocacy groups, government healthcare experts, and community activists to bring focus and to seek solutions to healthcare disparities. The summit consists of accredited clinical sessions, community, and policy sessions: Focus is CVD, diabetes, infectious and respiratory disease, renal disease, cancer and mental illness.
Community Benefit 101: The Nuts and Bolts of Planning and Reporting Community Benefit
April 24 San Francisco
For today's tax-exempt health care organizations, planning and reporting community benefit are critically important functions. Catholic Health Association, the leader in the community benefit field for 20 years, is offering a seminar that covers the basics of community benefit in not-for-profit health care, a valuable introduction for persons new to the topic and a useful review for those who are already doing the work of community benefit planning and reporting. Attend with your org's community benefit team and plan an integrated, practical approach to community benefit programming that your group can initiate on your first day back in the office.
2007 NNPHI Annual Conference
May 21-23 New Orleans
The National Network of Public Health Institutes hosts an annual educational conference for its members and leaders from federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, foundations, and academia.
Advancing Science-Based Prevention: Creating Real World Solutions
May 30 - June 1 Washington, D.C.
All participants are encouraged to submit abstracts for individual paper and poster presentations, organized paper symposium, poster forums, roundtable discussions/scientific dialogues and technology demonstrations for the Society for Prevention Research 15th Annual Meeting.
2007 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting
June 3-5 Orlando
Presentation of cutting-edge health services research is the cornerstone of this meeting, offering opportunities for researchers to share important findings with policymakers and providers who can move the research into action. This year's ARM is organized around 21 themes, including Gender & Health.
The Changing Face of Health Education and Health Promotion
June 7-9 Seattle
This national health education and health promotion conference is cosponsored by the Directors of Health Promotion and Education, the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Proposals are encouraged for concurrent sessions, pre or post-conference workshops, or poster presentations at the 2007 National Health Education Conference & SOPHE's 2007 Midyear Scientific Conference.
Crossroads II: Community-Based Collaborative Research for Social Justice
June 7-9 Hartford, CT
The Institute for Community Research (ICR) is convening its 2nd international conference on community-based collaborative research (CBCR), focusing on the promise, pitfalls, and "best practices" of CBCR to address disparities and inequities in the arenas of health, education, artistic and cultural representation, development, and the environment.
Race and Class Inequalities in Health
June 19-22 Boston
Conceptual and data-based papers are requested for presentation at the annual Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) meeting in 2007. There will be a contributed paper session on Race and Class Inequalities in Health and those working in this area are encouraged to submit abstracts of their work. Accepted abstracts will be distributed at the June meeting and will also be published in a Supplement issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
2007 CSTE Annual Conference: Eliminating Health Disparities: Data to Action
June 24-28 Atlantic City, NJ
Abstract proposals are being sought by the Program Planning Committee for the 2007 Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Annual Conference.
Health Equity and Environmental Public Health - From Local to Global
July 11-13 Columbus, OH
The NACCHO Annual 2007 Conference will be the year's largest gathering of local public health officials in the United States. This conference will provide a vital and central venue for local health officials and their public health partners to examine strategies, share ideas, and plan actions designed to address issues of health inequity and environmental public health from local to global perspectives.
Global Primary Health Care Strategies
July 21 - Aug 11
The Dept of Health Policy and Management of the Univ. of South Florida College of Public Health, with Jamaican Southern Regional Health Authority offers this graduate field course in Treasure Beach Jamaica. The course will cover strategies for providing access to health care services for disadvantaged rural populations as a part of its focus. The 3 credit course will be coupled with an hour of field practicum credit for a total of 4 semester hours of credit. Mornings will be spent in the field in the Black River Health District on projects that will feed into afternoon class sessions. The 4 credit program, including tuition, lodging, field travel, course materials, pickup and return to Montego Bay airport and 12 dinners will cost $3500 for both Florida and out of state participants. Airfare is extra.
Women of Color: Addressing Disparities, Affirming Resilience, and Developing Strategies for Success -- Minority Women's Health Summit
August 23-26 Washington DC
SOPHE 58th Annual Meeting - Partnerships to Achieve Health Equity
Oct 31–Nov 3 Alexandria, VA
Abstracts are now being accepted online for workshops, symposia, oral presentations, and posters for Society for Public Health Education's 58th Annual Meeting. SOPHE is pleased to be partnering with CDC's Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program and Eta Sigma Gamma for its 40th Annual Meeting. Sub-themes include health systems change; social determinants of health and transdisciplinary approaches to health education; health communications, health literacy and technology; cultural competence in bridging differences, and; evaluation and dissemination of evidence-based approaches. For more information, contact lvillejo@mdanderson.org
AUDIO AND WEB EVENTS
NOTICES
JAMA Theme Issue: Interventions to Improve Health among the Poor
Call for Papers Manuscripts Deadline: May 1
Poverty is an inveterate consequence and cause of ill health. Without financial resources, people cannot pay for basic human needs: food, water, sanitation, housing, and health care services. To help disseminate research into interventions that specifically address the needs of the poor, JAMA will publish a theme issue on poverty and human development in October 2007. JAMA will consider manuscripts that report original research of interventions targeted to address poverty, hunger, access to care, and prevention of disease that are based on careful consideration and analysis of local context, evidence, and environments and that are directly targeted to serve the poor.
CAMPAIGNS AND INITIATIVES
Free Cover the Uninsured Week 2007 Planning Materials Available
Start planning and promoting activities now—with help from newly updated planning guides! This year, Cover the Uninsured Week comes at a critical juncture in the health coverage debate: After 10 years, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is up for reauthorization in Congress. Our nation's leaders have the opportunity to provide funding to cover the children currently enrolled in SCHIP and expand the program to cover millions more children in need of health coverage. As a result, Cover the Uninsured Week 2007 will focus on the importance of children's health coverage and the success of SCHIP. To help you promote the importance and availability of SCHIP, these guides are now available: Health and Enrollment Fair Planning; Working with the Media; Editorial Placement; Campus Event Planning. Additional Cover the Uninsured Week 2007 materials will be posted in the coming weeks. Let's get America's kids covered!
Health Care for America
The Economic Policy Institute has released a progressive Health Care for America plan, a proposal for guaranteed, affordable health care for all Americans building on Medicare and employment-based insurance. Institute for America has announced a nationwide effort to discuss and debate how to get good health care coverage for all Americans while controlling spiraling health care costs. The Institute is collaborating with the Medicare Rights Center and a network of citizen action groups to foster public forums and internet discussion groups designed to create a groundswell of public support for action on health care for all. Many of these groups were active in the successful grassroots movement to stop President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Others are working to pass innovative state health care coverage plans.
March
National Brain Injury Awareness Month: March
Brain Injury Association of America
(703) 761-0750 (703) 761-0755 Fax
publicrelations@biausa.org www.biausa.org
National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month: March
Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation
(800) 227-2732 (877) 35-COLON (352-6566)
(703) 886-4413 Fax
cindy.iverson@preventcancer.org www.preventcancer.org/colorectal
National Multiple Sclerosis Education and Awareness Month: March
Multiple Sclerosis Foundation
(800) 225-6495 (954) 938-8708 Fax
annette@msfocus.org www.msfocus.org
National Nutrition Month®: March
American Dietetic Association
(800) 877-1600 x4771 (312) 899-4790 Fax
nnm@eatright.org www.eatright.org
Brain Awareness Week: Mar 12-18
Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives
(212) 223-4040 (212) 593-7623 Fax
bawinfo@dana.org www.dana.org/brainweek
American Diabetes Alert Day: Mar 28
American Diabetes Association
(800) DIABETES askada@diabetes.org
www.diabetes.org/communityprograms-and-localevents/americandiabetesalert.jsp
April
Foot Health Awareness Month: April
American Podiatric Medical Association
(301) 581-9227 www.apma.org
National Child Abuse Prevention Month: April
Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families
(800) 394-3366 info@childwelfare.gov www.childwelfare.gov/preventing
National Public Health Week: April 2-8
American Public Health Association
(202) 777-APHA (2742) (202) 777-2500 TTY
nphw@apha.org www.apha.org/nphw
World Health Day: April 7
WHO Regional Office
(202) 974-3000 www.who.int/world-health-day/
National Infant Immunization Week: April 21-28
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(800) CDC-INFO (232-4636) English/Spanish
nipinfo@cdc.gov www.cdc.gov/nip/events/niiw/
Cover the Uninsured Week: April 23-29
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
(202) 572-2928 info@covertheuninsured.org www.covertheuninsured.org
2007 WalkAmerica: April 27-29
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation
(888) MODIMES (663-4637) (800) 525-WALK (9255)
walkamerica@modimes.org www.walkamerica.org
May
American Stroke Month: May
American Heart Association
(800) 242-8721 inquire@americanheart.org www.americanheart.org
Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month: May
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
(800) 7-ASTHMA info@aafa.org www.aafa.org
Hepatitis Awareness Month: May
Hepatitis Foundation International
(800) 891-0707 hfi@comcast.net www.hepfi.org
Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month: May
American Academy of Dermatology
(888) 462-DERM (3376)
mediarelations@aad.org www.aad.org
Mental Health Month: May
National Mental Health Association
(800) 969-6642 www.nmha.org
National High Blood Pressure Education Month: May
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Health Information Center
(301) 592-8573 (240) 629-3255 TTY
nhlbiinfo@nhlbi.nih.gov http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/nhbpep_kit/
National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month: May
National Osteoporosis Foundation
(202) 223-2226
communications@nof.org www.nof.org
Melanoma Monday: May 1
American Academy of Dermatology
(888) 462-DERM (3376)
mediarelations@aad.org www.aad.org
High Blood Pressure Sunday: May 6
International Society on Hypertension in Blacks
(404) 880-0343 ishib@ishib.org www.ishib.org
National Alcohol- and Other Drug-Related Birth Defects Week: May 13-19
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.
(800) NCA-CALL (622-2255)
national@ncadd.org www.ncadd.org
National Women's Health Week: May 13-19
Office on Women's Health
U.S. Department of HHS
(202) 690-7651
sharon.ricks@hhs.gov www.womenshealth.gov/whw
National Women's Check-up Day: May 14
Office on Women's Health
U.S. Department of HHS
(202) 690-7651
sharon.ricks@hhs.gov www.womenshealth.gov
World No Tobacco Day: May 31
WHO Regional Office
(202) 974-3890 http://www.who.int/tobacco/wntd/en/
June
National Headache Awareness Week: June 3-9
National Headache Foundation
(888) NHF-5552
info@headaches.org www.headaches.org
Sun Safety Week: June 3-9
Sun Safety Alliance
(703) 837-4202 pschneider@sunsafetyalliance.org
www.sunsafetyalliance.org
National Cancer Survivors Day: June 3
National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation
(615) 794-3006 info@ncsdf.org www.ncsdf.org
National Men's Health Week: June 11-17
Men’s Health Network
(888) MEN-2-MEN (636-2636) Men's Healthline
info@menshealthweek.org www.menshealthweek.org
STATE HEALTH EVENTS AND NOTICES
March 16, 2007
NORTH FLORIDA
Call To Action/CHAIN Days: Join Florida CHAIN
March 21-23 Tallahassee
Florida CHAIN and HSC will make their annual trip to the state capitol from to advocate for improved access to, and funding for, health care, including KidCare, Medicaid and more. You'll be trained on these issues, and learn how to frame your message so legislators listen, learn and act on your behalf.
Florida Coalition for Optimal Mental Health and Aging Annual Conference: Elder Behavioral Healthcare Issues
March 22-23 Jacksonville
The 2007 Florida Coalition for Optimal Mental Health & Aging Annual Conference, “Come Together: Collaborating for Success,” offers the latest in policy and practice related to elder behavioral healthcare issues. The conference will focus on the behavioral health care needs of older Floridians and their families, including information on innovative clinical and program interventions, new state initiatives, and demonstrated best practices related to aging, mental health and substance abuse issues. Attendees will be provided opportunities to improve conceptualization and treatment skills with older adults through various workshops and sessions.
12th Annual Children's Week
March 25-April 1 Tallahassee
This statewide event brings thousands of parents, children, professionals, community leaders and concerned citizens together to share valuable knowledge and information about children's issues across the state and in our Tallahassee. This year, Children's Week has teamed up with the Association of Early Learning Coalitions, the Florida Dept of Health's Step Up Florida program and Prevent Child Abuse Florida's Winds of Change to host dozens of events and activities during February and March to promote the health, safety and well-being of children and families in Florida. Communities are inviting elected officials and families to come together and participate in local forums, receptions, events, arts & crafts fairs, reading round-ups, children's hand art and other fun, informative and educational events and activities designed to highlight the needs of Florida's children and families. For a full listing of events before and during Children's Week, click here. Contact Jason@childrensweek.org
CENTRAL FLORIDA
2007 AcademyHealth Annual Research MeetingJune 3-5 Orlando
Presentation of cutting-edge health services research is the cornerstone of this meeting, offering opportunities for researchers to share important findings with policymakers and providers who can move the research into action. This year's ARM is organized around 21 themes, including Gender & Health.
WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA
Joining FORCEs Against Cancer
May 18-19 Tampa
This is the only national conference for individuals and families affected by BRCA or hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Make friends, get support, network, and listen to the top experts speak about break-throughs regarding hereditary cancer. The conference will have sessions of interest to anyone concerned about hereditary cancer: cancer survivors, high-risk individuals, those with a BRCA mutation or family history of cancer, and health care providers who treat high-risk patients. Space is limited. Register before March 2 for a $30 discount. Continuing education credit for nurses and genetic counselors.
2007 Summer Conference on Florida's Young Children
Presentation Proposals Due: April 2
Event: July 18-20 Tampa
The One Goal: Building the Future Together "Putting Families and Children First" Conference brings together early education and care providers and leaders from around the state. It is designed to share innovative programs, practices and techniques for improving services and outcomes for all Florida’s children.” The previous conference “Providing Childcare For Children With Disabilities And Special Health Care Needs” coordinated by the Florida Inclusion Advisory Council is now fully integrated with this event. Registration fee $45, waived for primary presenter. Cosponsors include health organizations. 850/893-6270, frankieallen_2000@yahoo.com.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
SOUTHEAST FLORIDA
Events
Joining Hands: Engaging Families
March 19 Palm Beach County Conv. Center, WPB
Palm Beach County Coalition for Children's bi-annual conference provides opportunities to learn and to earn CEU's and in-service points. Brochure and workshop summaries are available on-line.
Unity Festival
March 21-22 10:30 am-3:30 pm PBCC Campus in Boca Raton
There will be charities and activist organizations, health awareness including free AIDS testing and mammograms, music, speeches, and much more. 561/862-4327, sullivjc@pbcc.edu
Información Sobre la Salud en la Internet
Marzo 22 6:00 pm Biblioteca de West Boynton, 9451 Jog Rd, Boynton Beach
¿Desea encontrar información sobre la salud en español en la que usted pueda confiar? Aprenda como usar la Internet y los recursos que la biblioteca le ofrece para encontrar información sobre medicamentos, condiciones médicas, términos médicos y más. Gratis. 561/734-5556
Town Hall Meeting: It’s Time for Healthcare Reform!
March 24 10:00 am-1:00 pm UU Congregation of Miami, 7701 SW 76th Ave, South Miami
Our nation’s health care is in crisis. Join us to discuss how best we can fix it. For more information, call 305/576-5001 x 20. Sponsored by: Healthcare-NOW-Florida, Florida CHAIN, Human Services Coalition of Dade County, Social Justice Committee of the UUCM
Walk/Run for the Whisper
March 31 Tradewinds Park, Coconut Creek
National Ovarian Cancer Coalition has been the nation’s leading ovarian cancer public information and education organization since 1995. This an annual family fun event. For more information, contact 888/OVARIAN or noccwalk@ovarian.org.
Town Hall Meeting: It’s Time for Healthcare Reform!
April 14 10:00 am-1:00 pm South Dade Regional Library, 10750 SW 211 St, Cutler Bay
Our nation’s health care is in crisis. Join us to discuss how best we can fix it. For more information, call 305/576-5001 x 20. Sponsored by: Healthcare-NOW-Florida, Florida CHAIN, Human Services Coalition of Dade County, Social Justice Committee of the UUCM
Broward County Youth Summit of Community Advocates
April 18 8:30am-all day Broward County Convention Center
Presented by the Board of Commissioners of Broward County and the Children’s Services Council of Broward County, the Youth Summit will bring together community advocates to further the significant progress made this decade on behalf of the children of Broward County.
Building Our Future 7th Annual Infant Mental Health Conference
Registration deadline: April 30
May 17-18 Bahia Mar Beach Resort and Yachting Center, Ft. Lauderdale
Pre-Conference Institutes: May 16
This annual conference features the latest research and best practices in infant mental health. National experts will provide cutting-edge knowledge in prevention and treatment for young children exposed to stress and trauma. Local communities will showcase implementation of Florida's Strategic Plan toward creating a birth-to-five mental health system. The event will bring together early educators and caregivers, physicians, nurses, mental health professionals, college professors, law enforcement personnel, social workers, therapists from many different disciplines, child advocates, psychologists, program administrators, and policy makers who are in a position to implement a mental health strategic plan in Florida and in other states or countries. For more information contact 305/592-3638 or lzeefe@mdahec.org.
Notices
FLORIDA AUDIO CONFERENCES AND WEBCASTS
STATEWIDE NOTICES
Florida Health News, free non-profit news service, now online
The Florida Health Policy Center has announced the launch of an independent, free, non-profit news service: Florida Health News Inc. FHN will post health-related stories reported around the state, highlight the Florida impact of national stories, and track state health legislation. The news service also will feature original coverage of major health policy developments and a free Monday-through-Friday news service. You can visit the site and subscribe to the e-mail news service by clicking on the link: www.FloridaHealthNews.org. To send your comments, story tips and news of conferences and other events, or get more information, contact pat.curtis@floridahealthnews.org or 850/556-1668.
Florida Children’s Action Agenda 2007/2008 Available Online
Florida state Senators Nan Rich and Durell Peaden and Representatives Loranne Ausley and J.C. Planas have released the final recommendations of the 2006 Florida Children’s Summit. The Summit participants learned a lot, and the next Summit in Fall 2008 will reflect that. In 2008 they will spend substantially more time in workshops hashing out recommendations and will secure experienced workshop facilitators who are knowledgeable about the topics they are facilitating. Also, they will institute a process to ensure that when leaving the 2008 Summit - or very shortly thereafter - all will know the Summit recommendations.
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