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Blog
August 26, 2015

To Tackle Health Disparities, Make Care More Affordable

Communities of color face significant health disparities and are more likely to suffer from certain chronic conditions, like diabetes, where early detection and treatment could mean the difference between life and death. One way to improve the odds for people with these conditions is to increase access to services, like necessary medications or periodic medical tests, that prevent the progression of, or complications from, those diseases.

 

Unfortunately for many lower-income consumers with high-deductible health insurance plans, the out-of-pocket expense of this essential care is well beyond their financial reach, causing them to forgo care.

Blog
September 28, 2017

With Graham-Cassidy Withdrawn, What's Next for Health Care?

At least for the next few months, Congress has shelved its attempts to take health insurance away from tens of millions of people through severe and partisan cuts to the ACA and Medicaid. This extraordinary result is a tribute to consumers and advocates who raised their voices all across the country, in phone calls to Senate and House offices, town-hall meetings, letters to the editor, rallies, and more. 

This accomplishment is worth celebrating, but the fight continues. Vital health care priorities are currently up for grabs, in five main areas.

Blog
August 7, 2014

New Legislation Would Tackle Health Inequalities

Last week, Rep. Lucile Roybal-Allard, chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s health task force, introduced the Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA) of 2014. This legislation is the latest effort by the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Congressional Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus to enact a comprehensive plan to eliminate the health disparities that plague communities of color and other groups. In every legislative session since 2003, lawmakers have introduced similar bills seeking to improve health outcomes for minority groups.

Blog
July 14, 2015

Tackling Health Care Challenges in the States: Legislative Roundup

While Congress wrestles with budget reconciliation and takes another swipe at the Affordable Care Act, most state lawmakers are back at their day jobs and finished with legislative business for the year. The 2015 sessions produced a few highlights, and some lowlights, for health care advocates. Lawmakers continued to grapple with full implementation of the ACA, but some looked beyond the health care law to move their states toward a health reform 2.0 agenda. Below we note some of the significant work this year in state capitals.

Blog
December 21, 2017

What Does Health Action 2018 Mean to You? One Advocate’s Perspective

Health Action 2018: Staying Strong for America’s Families will be Mina Schultz’s fourth Health Action conference. Mina, who is currently a Master’s student studying Health Policy and an Outreach Specialist with Get Covered NYC, has a real passion for health care. Whether it was her personal fight against cancer at age 25, or helping others to enroll in coverage as a Certified Application Counselor (CAC) in West Virginia, Mina has tirelessly fought for her coverage and the coverage of many others.

Blog
May 5, 2015

Tackling Health Disparities While Reforming Payment and Delivery

The activity around payment and system reform creates an opportunity to develop interventions that directly address racial and ethnic health disparities. However, some reforms could inadvertently make disparities worse. For example, they could discourage providers from treating sicker, more complex patients, or undermine the financial viability of struggling safety net providers.

Fortunately, some communities are implementing delivery system reforms that reduce health disparities and bend the cost curve. The effective models we describe in this blog series share several features in common.

Blog
September 8, 2015

HHS Proposes New Rules to Prevent Discrimination in Health Care

Last week, the federal government, for the first time, announced far-reaching regulations banning discrimination in health care. With this historic action, the government is prohibiting discrimination in the provision of health care services based on sex and gender identity. The new regulations announced by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also expand existing discrimination bans on the basis of disability or health status, race, national origin, age, or language spoken.

Blog
March 26, 2015

How a New Cross-Health Sector Network Can Transform the Health Care System

Yesterday, President Obama and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Burwell kicked off the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (Network), a network of cross-sector stakeholders focused on quality and costs in the health care system. The network aims to transform our entire health care system—beyond Medicare and Medicaid—from a system that pays for volume to one that pays for quality and value and that actively engages consumers in their own care. More than 2,800 payers, providers, employers, and consumer groups (including Families USA) have registered to participate in the Network.

Blog
March 20, 2014

Harnessing the Power of HealthIT to End Health Disparities

Health information technology (HealthIT) offers many powerful tools in the fight to eliminate disparities in the delivery of care and health outcomes. From identifying variation in care delivery and outcomes by demographic group to harnessing the power of mobile devices to collect and share health data, the opportunities to leverage HealthIT in the promotion of health equity are plentiful. 

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