Engaging Employers: Creating Health Care Advocates in the Business Community
Employers provide health insurance coverage to 160 million workers and their dependents, almost two-thirds of the nonelderly population. With health care costs rising, many business leaders are calling for reform. Health philanthropy is experimenting with several ways to engage the business community in conversations about health care reform.
Key Issues in Reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program
Over the last 10 years, the State Children’s health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which now covers 6 million children, and Medicaid, which covers 28 million children, have deceased the uninsured rate of low-income children by one-third. While there is broad bipartisan support for SCHIP, several key issues have emerged during the reauthorization process, including how the program should be financed, who should be covered, and what that coverage should include.
Improving Health Care Access: Grantmakers Share Their Experiences
This report is a collection of profiles that tells the stories of how health funders across the country are working to improve access to health care. With these profiles, we have attempted to capture the priorities, funding strategies, accomplishments, and challenges of a cross section of grantmakers, giving readers a place to look for insights that they can adapt to their own circumstances. Download the full report or the executive summary.
Implementing the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
On January 1, 2006, Medicare prescription drug coverage became available to the program’s 43 million beneficiaries. To receive the coverage, however, beneficiaries must actively opt in to Medicare Part D by selecting a prescription drug plan (PDP).
Foundations and the Media
Local and national media outlets can help grantmakers inform and educate the public about important health issues and promote the work of their grantees. For many foundations, however, working with the media is uncharted territory.
Medicaid: Vital to Women’s Health
Although Medicaid is not usually perceived as a women’s health program, it covers critically important medical care for 12 million American women. Grantmakers with a focus on women’s health are paying close attention to proposals to restructure the Medicaid program, which could have major implications for low-income women’s access to health care services.
Getting Prescription Drugs to Those Who Need Them Most
There are major changes taking place in the way elderly and disabled people pay for prescription drugs. These changes are being ushered in by the new Medicare law, which, if it lives up to its promise, will be incredibly helpful to some of the most vulnerable members of our society. What are the details of the new law? How many people will it affect? How will low-income people be assisted? What are the implementation challenges? How are they being addressed by the federal government? What can grantmakers do to help?
New Choices and Hard Decisions: Helping Seniors Navigate Medicare
Educating seniors on the changes to the Medicare program will be a challenge for both the public and private sectors. Reaching the nation’s 41 million Medicare beneficiaries — 35 million of whom are over the age of 65 — will require a mix of customized, one-on-one assistance and broad education campaigns. This Issue Focus proposes that providing information and referral services for seniors and their families is an area ripe for foundation work, and outlines a number of opportunities for grantmakers.
Connecting Children to Ongoing and Coordinated Health Care
Ongoing and coordinated care for children has been linked to better health outcomes, as well as lower overall costs. This Issue Focus highlights opportunities for grantmakers that include improving access to medical homes, coordinating care for children with chronic diseases, educating providers, colocating services, and reducing emergency department use.
Medicare + Choice – New Health Plan Options Challenge Medicare Beneficiaries to Act as Informed Consumers: Is the System Ready?
This supplement to the GIH Bulletin outlined new health plan options that challenge medicare beneficiaries to act as informed consumers.