Using Strategic Philanthropy to Advance State Health Care Reform: Maine’s New Dirigo Health Plan

Learn about development of Maine’s innovative Dirigo Health Plan, an ambitious, comprehensive health care reform initiative.  Dirigo Health will offer a health insurance product to individuals, the self-employed, and small businesses; expand eligibility in Maine’s Medicaid program; and improve quality and contain costs. 

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Skimming the Fat: The CATCH Initiative

With reports from the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services regarding the prevalence of
and danger associated with obesity in America, a
“call to action” was issued to all communities nationwide to
help address this health problem. In a world where fast food
and soft drinks are a common meal and Internet surfing or
computer games replace exercise, children today face serious
health consequences.

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Giving Voice to the Voiceless: The Case for Advocacy Funding

Funding public policy work is as important to health improvement as funding for direct services.  Lessons learned from funding advocates include the importance of providing core operating support, the need to engage the grassroots, and how to empower community members.

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Support Cover the Uninsured Week: Making Uninsured Americans a Priority on the Nation’s Agenda

The issue of the uninsured is one of America’s biggest health challenges, and the situation is growing worse. In response, health philanthropies from coast to coast and some of the nation’s most influential organizations in the United States are joining together to support Cover the Uninsured Week from March 10-16, 2003. We hope you will join us in supporting this unprecedented foundation-led educational effort so that we can speak with one voice on behalf of the nation’s uninsured.

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If the Dow Breaks, Will Health Philanthropy Fall? Strategic Grantmaking During Economic Uncertainty

If we were measuring the health of our foundations by financial growth over the past two years, some of us might be considering life-support systems. Fortunately for the field, and for those we support through our grantmaking, the health of our organizations is not measured by dollars alone. The measure of our work is defined in people

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Efficient Philanthropy: Modest Beginnings at The Health Funders Partnership of Orange County

A recently released report from The Center for Effective Philanthropy, Indicators of Effectiveness, comments on foundations’ growing understanding and interest in assessing their overall performance, noting that many are “convinced that better performance assessment will lead to greater effectiveness and, in turn, to more social impact on the people and issues they affect.”

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People, Wildlife, and Ecosystems: Health for One, Health for All

The field of ecological health recognizes that the physical
well-being of people, nonhuman animals, and their habitats are inseparable. This is a profoundly different notion
from the conventional view of health, in which physicians,
nurses, and others treat human ills; veterinarians tend to the
health of livestock, pets, and wildlife; and conservation biologists
and ecologists address habitat health. But the more we learn
about health, the more ludicrous these artificial divisions become.

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Putting Knowledge to Work for Mental Health

A challenge to the philanthropic community: do better when it comes to funding for mental health. Dr. Garduque describes how grantmakers can – and should – play a key role in charting new territory, challenging service systems to do better, and promoting the adoption of evidence-based practices.

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Better Health Through Better Philanthropy - Grantmakers in Health

What Patient Safety is Teaching Us

This Views from the Field spotlights the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative, a regional health care quality and patient safety improvement program. With initial funding from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and support from a wide variety of community stakeholders, this initiative has evolved into a nationally recognized model for improving health care quality.

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