Beyond the Exam Room: Impacting Health Outcomes Through Civic Engagement
August marks Civic Health Month, a time to showcase the link between voting and health and celebrate efforts that ensure every voter can support their community’s health at the ballot box. At the same time, the United States is grappling with a health care system ranked 37th globally despite consuming 17 percent of the country’s GDP. With 26 million Americans uninsured and 43 million underinsured, the gap in access to care continues to widen. This crisis will deepen as critical ACA subsidies expire at the end of 2025, potentially leaving 3.8 million more Americans without coverage, in addition to new federal cuts to Medicaid and changes to how coverage is accessed through the health insurance marketplace, which could result in as many as 20 million Americans losing their health insurance.
Protecting Ballot Measures to Protect Democracy
Access to abortion care in Ohio. The chance to support city candidates with democracy vouchers in Seattle. Promoting judicial ethics in Colorado. An $11 an hour minimum wage in Arkansas. What do these policy changes have in common? They were all enacted through the ballot initiative process, and they all support healthy, thriving communities, both in process and in outcome. But multiple states are seeing efforts to curtail the ballot measure process, limiting the voices of voters.
Philanthropy @ Work – Transitions – August 2017
The latest on transitions from the field.
Philanthropy @ Work – Grants and Programs – August 2017
The latest on grants and programs from the field.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation Report: August 2017
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation released a primer designed to increase understanding of the behavioral health care system in Massachusetts and the issues affecting access to care for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders.
New York State Health Foundation Report: August 2017
The New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) has released a snapshot of health and demographic information on the more than 800,000 veterans that call New York state home.
A Flexible Model for Investing in Healthy Community Transformation
Following the success of community-led initiatives that took place as a result 200 partnerships across 35 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, Active Living By Design developed a deep understanding of the community change process.