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State Health Reform
State capitals are the site of many important decisions about health care. Until recently, significant health policy decisions were primarily being made at the state level. Since 1997, Community Catalyst has been working with consumer advocate groups across the country to improve health care quality and access at the state level. We work with groups in more than 40 states on issues ranging from expanding coverage to advocating for broader health reform initiatives. As debates continue on reforming America’s health care system, states are serving as laboratories for reform and catalysts for national policy change, testing approaches and identifying best practices.
- March 04, 2013 Medicaid Report Card This webtool will help you propose budget-saving alternatives to harmful Medicaid cuts. Just click on your state to get a customized list of policies your state could enact to reduce costs while maintaining or even improving patient care.
- September 10, 2012 Business Community Participation in Health Reform: The Massachusetts Experience Massachusetts business leaders explain how and why they became involved in implementing health reform in the state. The report shares results and lessons learned, and the perspectives of business owners, entrepreneurs and executives on how health reform has affected the business sector in the state.
- August 30, 2012 All for One and One for All: Promising Practices for Consumer Health Advocacy Collaboration In working closely with state-based advocates that are building or maintaining consumer health coalitions, Community Catalyst identified some important lessons and promising practices for others who are developing their own collaborations.
- August 30, 2012 Executive Summary: All for One and One for All: Promising Practices for Consumer Health Advocacy Collaboration In working closely with state advocates, Community Catalyst identified important lessons and promising practices for others who are developing their own collaborations and found four common factors that influence the successful establishment and maintenance of statewide health advocacy networks of coalitions.
- August 30, 2011 Essential Health Benefits: A Federal Strategy Guide for Advocates The new health law created an important consumer protection: by establishing a package of essential health benefits - or a floor for what health plans must cover. Advocates have a key role to play in making sure they are strong and robust.
- November 03, 2010 Staying the Course: The Essential Role of Consumer Advocates in Reforming Health Care An overview of the projects and work to date of Consumer Voices for Coverage, a joint initiative of Community Catalyst and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
- May 07, 2010 Health Equity Policy Options Achieving health equity will require a sustained effort using many policy and organizing strategies. This document provides advocates engagement ideas by outlining a range of interim goals and strategies, including some new opportunities resulting from national health care reform.
- March 19, 2010 Gains in the States: Consumer Advocacy and Federal-State Alliances Help Expand Health Coverage Despite a deep economic recession and the promise of national health care reform, states advanced access to quality affordable health care in 2009.
- August 31, 2009 Progress Despite Barriers: Public demand spurs expansion of health coverage Many states expanded health care coverage in 2008, despite the economic crisis that exacerbated the burden of health costs on state budgets and forced states to make drastic spending cuts, according to two nationwide surveys. Drawing on public demand for quality, affordable health care, consumer advocates provided much of the impetus for these expansions.
- February 11, 2009 Expanding Coverage for Dependents Expanding Coverage for Dependents describes one solution: changing state laws to allow young people to remain on their parents’ health insurance beyond age 18. This is a smart strategy during a fiscal crunch, as there is no cost to the state and typically little extra cost to parents and insurers.
- December 09, 2008 Getting What You Pay For: Reducing Wasteful Medical Spending Consumer advocates and policymakers can promote changes to reduce these sources of waste and improve patient care, such as: • Requiring disclosure of medical errors and misuse of care • Informing patients and their doctors about the effectiveness and costs of treatment options • Paying for care based on quality rather than quantity
- November 19, 2008 The Pitfalls of High Risk Pools This Community Catalyst brief summarizes the most common problems with high risk pools, and links to other resources where advocates can get more detailed information.
- November 17, 2008 Defining Affordable Health Care for Missouri Responding to the lack of information on the role of affordability on health coverage, Community Catalyst created a methodology for defining health insurance affordability by drawing together several different studies. This paper applies the methodology to derive an affordability standard in Missouri.
- November 17, 2008 Defining Affordable Health Care for Missouri Fact Sheet Responding to the lack of information on the role of affordability on health coverage, Community Catalyst has created a methodology for defining health insurance affordability by drawing together several different studies. Using this methodology Community Catalyst has developed a model for Missouri establishing health care affordability for the state.
- October 15, 2008 More for Our Health Care Dollar: Improving Quality to Cut Costs The first in a series on consumer-friendly approaches to cost containment.
- September 25, 2008 Commonhealth 20 Year Retrospective and Celebration Brief
- September 02, 2008 Healthy San Francisco: A Case Study of City-Level Health Reform Community Catalyst releases a new report today, Healthy San Francisco: A Case Study of City Level Health Reform. Healthy San Francisco (HSF) is an innovative attempt to address the problems of the uninsured at the city level.
- July 01, 2008 California's Near Miss: Understanding the proposed ABx1-1 legislation California's most recent attempt to enact a broad expansion of health insurance coverage met its final road-block in the 2007 legislative session this January. In mid-December, months of intense negotiations between the Democratic State Legislature and the Republican Governor culminated in a promising compromise: the Health Security and Cost Reduction Act (ABx1-1).
- December 01, 2007 Revisiting Massachusetts Health Reform: 18 Months Later This paper examines enrollment and coverage in the first year-and-a-half of implementation. The examination of policies tested in Massachusetts health reform provides important lessons for other states.
- July 17, 2007 A Consumer Guide to Creating a Health Insurance Connector An easy-to-read report explaining health insurance Connectors, and outlining six policy elements to help Connectors reduce the cost of insurance, make coverage available to all, and reduce the number of uninsured.
- July 16, 2007 A Consumer Checklist for Creating a Health Insurance Connector While a Connector can improve the functioning of the health insurance market in a state, it needs to work within a certain climate and contain certain elements as outlined in this checklist.
- April 01, 2007 Affordable Health Care for All: What Does Affordable Really Mean? To respond to a gap in literature on affordability, Community Catalyst takes a first step in creating a new methodology for defining affordability of health insurance by drawing together several different studies. This is done by applying this framework to Massachusetts as a case study.
- April 01, 2007 Defining Affordability for Massachusetts Presentaton A Power Point presentation on how research can inform the individual mandate
- December 01, 2006 Understanding Health Reform in Vermont This paper will look at what the Vermont law does, how it came to pass, and what lessons there may be for other states.
- October 01, 2006 Consumer Health Advocacy: A View from 16 States This report looks at state health reform in 16 states addressing the following questions: What is actually happening in state capitals and communities across the nation as these trends play out and crucial health policy decisions are being made? Can health care consumers actively participate in health policymaking? What political, economic, and organizational factors are making consumer health advocacy successful in some states and extremely challenging in others?
- April 21, 2006 Massachusetts Health Reform: What it Does; How it Was Done; Challenges Ahead On Tuesday April 4, 2006 the Massachusetts House and Senate voted to approve legislation that will extend health insurance coverage to hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents. At the same time, the legislation leaves many critical questions about the scope and cost of benefits and the obligations of individuals to purchase coverage unanswered. This report attempts to explain the critical issues.
- June 01, 2005 Access to Affordable Insurance for Individuals and Small Businesses: Barriers and Potential Solutions This paper is directed to health access advocates. Its goal is to provide enough information so that they can educate their constituencies – many of whom are small business owners or employees -- on why coverage costs are so high and availability so limited. It also addresses what’s wrong – or right – with the approaches that have been proposed or tried to date to make coverage more affordable and accessible. Finally, it recommends a package of reforms that offer the best hope for providing relief without placing undue burden on those who are in less than perfect health.
- February 05, 2004 What Does Maine's New Health Care Law Mean for Other States? A report on Maine's new health law
- November 01, 2003 An Ounce of Prevention: Tobacco Control Saves Money, Saves Lives As spiraling health care inflation continues to threaten the security of public and private health care insurance, prevention programs will help provide the cost savings necessary to protect and expand health access without hurting consumers.
- November 01, 2003 Coverage Matters: Why the decline in Medicaid and private insurance is putting people with tobacco-related illnesses at risk This paper gives a brief overview of the Medicaid program and its significance as a source of coverage for people with cancer, cardiovascular disease and tobacco related illnesses in general. It goes on to explain why this coverage is at risk and the serious consequences to people with the aforementioned illnesses of the potential loss of coverage.
- April 01, 2003 Hospital Free Care Programs: A Study of Sixteen Long Island Hospitals This report is a sequel to our first study “Hospital Community Benefits and Free Care Programs” which was released in March, 2001. The original study contains background information, the survey protocol and a review of N.Y. State’s laws and regulations that pertain to hospital community benefits and charitable care. None of this information is repeated herein.
- January 01, 2003 Oregon Health Plan 2 An overview of the Oregon Health Plan
- December 01, 2002 Making the Case Against Medicaid Cuts Presentation A powerpoint presentation to the Alliance for a Healthy New England Summit
- January 01, 2002 Addressing Oral Health Needs Community Catalyst and Health Care for All hope that this guide will strengthen existing dental health advocacy and foster new initiatives to improve dental health, especially for low income people, linguistic and cultural minorities, persons with disabilities, rural families, the elderly and other underserved communities.
- July 01, 2001 Mending the Safety Net: A Hospital-Community Collaboration Improves Access to Free Care in Columbus
- March 01, 2001 Hospital Community Benefits and Free Care Programs: An Initial Study of Seven Long Island Hospitals Based on the findings of this initial pilot study, this report has developed recommendations that hospitals, state government, and community members will be encouraged to use in order to improve the quality and responsiveness of hospital free care and community benefits programs.
- October 01, 2000 Getting Health Care When You Are Uninsured: A Survey of Uninsured Patients at Four Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio This report summarizes national data on the impact of health insurance on access to care and health outcomes, and presents the results of the survey in one community, Cleveland, Ohio.