New England Campaign for Childrens Health:

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New England Campaign for Childrens Health
Advancing Coverage, Access Quality
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A project of
With support from
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Presentation Outline

• Status of Childrens Health
• Project Overview
• Priority Issues
• Power of a Regional Approach
• Opportunities for Advancing Childrens Healthcare
• Next Steps

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Status of Childrens Health
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All children deserve quality, accessible
healthcare coverage
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Uninsured Children in New England
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New England Children on Medicaid
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Health, Insurance, and Income

• Nearly 4 in 10 uninsured children nationwide did
  not see a doctor last year
• Uninsured children go without medical care for
  serious health issues about 6 times as much as
  children with insurance
• Uninsurance is linked with greater use of
  inappropriate venues of care, like the emergency
  room

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Consequences of Uninsurance

• Children with lower incomes and no insurance
  have
• Greater rates of asthma and obesity
• Greater rates of psychological disturbance,
  including depression
• Greater risk of learning disability and long
  term school absence

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Benefits of Insurance Coverage

• Improved health of children
• Investing in the health of our children is an
  investment in the long-term health of our
  workforce. Physically and mentally healthy
  children miss fewer school days and are better
  able to learn. Our regions future economic
  success is directly tied to how well we prepare
  the children of today for the responsibilities of
  tomorrow.
• Reduced costs associated with uninsurance
• New England spent an estimated 62 million on
  uncompensated care for children in 2005
• 34 million of this cost was passed on to people
  with insurance as a sick tax in the form of
  higher premiums

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Project Overview
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Mission statement

• The New England Campaign for Childrens Health
  is committed to protecting children and our
  communities from ill-advised cuts in the Medicaid
  system.
• Over time, we seek to expand public and private
  childrens healthcare coverage by working
  collaboratively to play a pivotal role in federal
  and state healthcare debates so that we reach all
  children in need, improve quality of care and
  increase the value of coverage.

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Vision Statement

• The New England Campaign for Childrens Health
  envisions a region where consumer advocates,
  providers, business leaders, and educators work
  together to ensure all children have access to
  the highest quality healthcare.
• When this is achieved, the Campaign will have
  played a critical role in this effort.

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Goals

• Preserving Medicaid provisions that guarantee all
  eligible children receive comprehensive benefits
  without financial barriers
• Enhancing access to care for all uninsured
  children of low-income families through expanded
  Medicaid and SCHIP coverage

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Goals (cont)

• Increasing the quality of childrens health care
  through the development of performance and
  quality improvement measures, as well as the
  investment in the health care delivery system for
  children
• Building sustained support for childrens health
  care funding from policy makers, community
  leaders, businesses, families, and individuals

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Stakeholders

• The New England Campaign for Childrens Health is
  a coalition of
• childrens hospitals, pediatricians, community
  health centers, and other health care providers
• children, family and consumer advocates
• business leaders
• educators

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Priority Issues
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Federal SCHIP Reauthorization Medicaid Defense

• SCHIP must be reauthorized in 2007, and it
  provides the best opportunity for an offensive
  strategy to expand healthcare coverage for
  children. Simultaneously it may pose significant
  dangers to existing coverage for children,
  including EPSDT.
• The Campaign is committed to working
  collaboratively with its partners to deliver a
  strong, well-framed message that can help shape
  the reauthorization process, as well as defending
  Medicaid in the 2007 and 2008 federal budget
  proposals.

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State Individualized state work

• Many New England states have led the effort to
  cover all children with high-quality, affordable
  healthcare
• The Campaign will support efforts within states
  to proactively advance coverage for children and
  defend against cuts to existing programs.
• Family Opportunity Act (FOA), part of the 2006
  budget, opens the door for states to pass
  legislation allowing low- and middle-income
  families to access healthcare coverage through
  Medicaid for children with disabilities.
• The Campaign is committed to working with states
  to pass legislation implementing the Act.

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Quality Improved pediatric care

• Improving the quality of pediatric care has not
  received the same national attention as quality
  issues related to adult medicine.
• The Campaign will work with partners from across
  the region to focus on this issue and determine
  what steps can be taken in New England to improve
  the quality of healthcare for our children.

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Power of a Regional Approach
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Regional Healthcare Market

• Current State
• New England has a regional healthcare market
  where families seek treatment for their children
  throughout the state.
• Opportunity
• Work collaboratively to increase healthcare
  funding to the region so that every New England
  hospital and state budget can benefit.

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Regional Advocacy Strategies

• Current State
• State budgets continue to be squeezed, and
  Medicaid funding for children is threatened in a
  variety of ways.
• Opportunity
• Share successful strategies across state lines to
  help maximize lessons learned and use state-based
  evidence for preventing cuts.

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Regional Quality Improvement

• Current State
• Insufficient national attention and efforts have
  been directed toward pediatric quality
  improvement
• Opportunity
• Work with pediatric quality improvement leaders
  to develop a regional strategy for improving the
  quality of childrens healthcare

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Regional Political Power

• Current State
• New England has the power of a bipartisan group
  of Congressional leaders that have a deep
  commitment to childrens health, including
  several key swing votes
• 3 moderate Republican Senators (Chafee, Collins
  and Snowe)
• Senate leader on healthcare issues (Kennedy)
• 3 swing Republican Representatives on 2006 budget
  reconciliation from CT (Johnson, Shays, Simmons)

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Regional Political Power (cont)

• Opportunity
• Utilize the power of a regional coalition and the
  strength of direct constituent contact to
  influence Congressional votes on childrens
  healthcare funding

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Regional Funding Power

• Current State
• Advocates continually struggle to secure funding
  for healthcare advocacy work
• Opportunity
• Present to funders an effective, coordinated,
  regional campaign whose goal is to finish the
  job and provide healthcare coverage to all New
  England children

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Regional Media Markets

• Current State
• New England has a number of shared media markets
  that allow for expanded audiences across state
  lines
• Opportunity
• Wisely use shared media markets to disseminate
  unified messages on childrens healthcare funding
  through a paid and earned media strategy

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Opportunities for Advancing Childrens
Healthcare Coverage
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Upcoming Mobilization Points
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Key Statewide Initiatives

• The New England Campaign for Childrens Health
  will study state developments in childrens
  healthcare coverage and identify both positive
  initiatives and ones that pose potential dangers
  for the quality of healthcare coverage.

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Key Statewide Initiatives (cont)

• Examples of such initiatives include
• Health Reform (MA) new legislation will provide
  coverage to all children up to 300 of the
  federal poverty line and insure 90-95 of MA
  residents in next three years. Requires Fair
  Share Contribution and Free Rider Surcharge to
  employers who do not offer healthcare.
• All Kids (IL) initiative to provide access to
  healthcare for any child that needs it
• Dirigo Health Reform (ME) system-wide health
  reform law designed to provide access to coverage
  for everyone in Maine within five years

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Key Statewide Initiatives (cont)

• Global Commitment to Health (VT) Health
  maintenance organization responsible for
  managing Vermonts Medicaid program. Provides
  Vermont with more flexibility in running the
  program but caps Washington spending at 4.7
  billion over 5 years.
• CommonHealth Program (MA) In 1988, the
  CommonHealth insurance program removed many of
  the health care barriers that prevented people
  with disabilities from getting a job by providing
  an opportunity to buy the services they need
  through a Medicaid buy-in program. Funded in part
  by Medicaid and in part by a sliding-scale
  premium paid by recipients.

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Next Steps
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Next Steps

• Meet with key leaders in each New England state
• Convene a one-day working session to
• Develop messages on SCHIP reauthorization and
  other key federal issues
• Share statewide strategies and current battles
• Identify opportunities for improving quality of
  pediatric healthcare
• Provide on-going support to states