November 2014 Issue

On the Hill

The Mid-Terms and the ACA: Implications for Health Care Advocacy

As the dust begins to settle on the 2014 elections, consumer health advocates are taking a moment to reflect on the role that health care played in the outcome as well as the implications for federal and state health policy going forward.
On the Issues

How Much Will that Prescription Drug Cost? I Really Can’t Say...

Consumers often face high out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs each month, particularly people with chronic or multiple health conditions. Alarmingly, polls in 2012 and 2013 found that even insured consumers felt the financial burden of their monthly drug costs. When this monthly ‘cost burden’ gets too high, consumers will skip taking their medications, filling their prescriptions or even seeing their doctors – creating serious barriers to care. 
Spotlight Event

Health Care Advocacy on the Move Open House

On October 8, longtime collaborators Community Catalyst, Health Care For All and Health Law Advocates hosted an open house at our new office in downtown Boston. This move bought all three organizations – and a combined 65 years of effective local, state, and national health advocacy – together on one state-of-the-art floor. We took this exciting opportunity to honor Rob Restuccia, Community Catalyst Executive Director and former Health Care For All Executive Director, for his 25 years of leadership to our organizations and contributions to consumer health advocacy.

On our Minds

Reflections from My Sabbatical: Connections Across Health Systems

In this article, Community Catalyst's Executive Director, Rob Restuccia reflects on his first-ever sabbatical.

This past summer I took a sabbatical, during which my wife Emily and I spent three weeks in Vietnam. While on our trip, we combined being tourists with learning about the Vietnamese health system. Emily has a strong interest in Vietnam through her work. She is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner at the Dorchester House Neighborhood Health Center and many of her patients are Vietnamese. Also, Emily is connected to the large Vietnamese community around the Health Center through her research and teachings as a professor of Public Health and Medicine at Boston University. We were fortunate to have many connections to Vietnam before our trip.
On the Ground

Open Enrollment Year Two: Reaching Underserved Communities in Missouri

With the second open enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) now underway, the Missouri enrollment community has launched an aggressive outreach campaign to enroll uninsured Missourians, whose number currently stands at 742,000. Though that may seem like a daunting task, the campaign builds on a well-coordinated effort led by the Cover Missouri Coalition, which helped over 150,000 Missourians gain coverage through the federal Marketplace in the first enrollment period, operating under the Missouri Foundation for Health’s Expanding Coverage Initiative.
O N   T H E   W I R E

Even in challenging environments, outreach and enrollment under the ACA was hugely successful last year. Community Catalyst’s  new video, Getting to Covered, tells the story of enrollment in three Southern States – Alabama, Florida and North Carolina. Thank you to everyone who worked to make the video a reality and to all the video participants. Special thanks to Jim Carnes with Alabama Arise, Ryan Morris with Florida CHAIN, and Nicole Dozier and Adam Linker with North Carolina Justice Center.

The New England Alliance for Children’s Health (NEACH) convened advocates from all six New England states at the 2014 Children’s Health Care Summit on November 12. NEACH celebrated this year’s Children’s Champion, Sandi Van Scoyoc, for her dedication to the health of children in New Hampshire and the true impact her work as president of the HNH Foundation created for them. Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts of Rhode Island spoke about her role as a child health advocate and the importance of such advocacy going forward.

More than 70 advocates, geriatrics provider experts, speakers and panelists attended the Voices for Better Health second annual Convening, held October 22 through 24 in Chicago, participating in sessions covering a wide array of topics central to the dual eligible demonstration projects. A highlight was the inspirational keynote address delivered by Marca Bristo, President and CEO of Access Living, Chicago’s center for independent living. Ms. Bristo helped draft and win passage of the ADA and is currently leading a campaign to promote the ratification in the United States of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

Christine Barber, Senior Policy Analyst, and Eva Marie Stahl, New England Alliance for Children’s Health Director, explain to U.S. News & World Report how coverage options like the Children’s Health Insurance Program help children remain covered.

Dara Taylor, Director of the Expanding Coverage through Consumer Assistance Program in Missouri, explained successful strategies to engage the uninsured to enroll in coverage on KCUR 89.3FM.

Michael Miller, Director of Strategic Policy, discusses in the Washington Post the importance of hospital finance assistance, even as more consumers gain coverage.

Join us in welcoming new staff members: Sherry Dai, Sadie DeCourcy, Amber Ma, Trevon Mayers, Meredith Munn, Puja Patel, Jackie Rivera and Tory Stephens.

Media Contact

Jack Cardinal
Deputy Director of Communications
617-275-2923 
jcardinal@communitycatalyst.org

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