Annual Report of Activities

2004

A look back at the Connecticut Health Policy Project and its activities through our fifth anniversary.

Program Accomplishments:

• Completed research and photography for In Their Own Words: Connecticut Families Losing HUSKY, a qualitative study with photographs and narratives of eight Connecticut families with a member who recently lost (or was threatened with losing) HUSKY, documenting the impact on families including access to services, health status, financial impact and quality of life.
• Began facilitation and data collection for CT HESS – quantitative economic analysis of real health costs for a variety of typical Connecticut families, collaborative project with Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and The Women's Union, Boston MA
• Expanded Consumer Health Action Network - 500 uninsured, HUSKY and SAGA consumer households receiving monthly newsletters in English and Spanish, training and regular opportunities to voice their concerns to policymakers, opportunities to share their stories with the media and the tools to protect their story and their privacy, policy advocacy and case work support
• Intensive, successful voter registration drive to get Network consumers to register and vote, including
  • Assessing each of 500 network consumers’ registration status from town registrars of voters
  • Multiple mailings to consumers individualized by (as many as 8 mailings to primary voters)
  • Registered vs. unregistered including registration cards, stamped and addressed to their town Registrar, instructions and fact sheet on myths vs. facts on registration
  • Primary district vs. general election
  • English or Spanish
  • Included cards with names and phone numbers for all candidates for their districts from President to State Rep.
  • Delivered training to dozens of other nonprofits on how to register their clients
• Published six Policymaker Issue Briefs for policymakers, providers, employers and consumers to raise awareness and reduce confusion about timely health policy issues
• Medicaid Spending in Context and
• Medicaid Spending in Context – Update – two briefs that place Connecticut Medicaid increase (3.7% for 2003) in context of total state general fund (3.3%), national Medicaid (10.6%), Medicare (8.8%) and private health insurance (11.2%) growth rates as well as compared to other parts of Connecticut’s state budget that have grown faster than Medicaid
• Connecticut Hospital Free Bed Funds – Twenty Connecticut acute care hospitals have access to over $100 million in private funds to cover bills for uninsured consumers
• 365,754 Connecticut Residents Uninsured in 2003 – more than the combined populations of New Haven plus Hartford plus Waterbury o Supportive Housing for Medically Complex Children and their Families – results of a feasibility study by the CT Health Policy Project to provide accessible, affordable housing with on-site nursing care to families with children who cannot leave a hospital or DCF custody but for consistent care and appropriate housing, recommendations for design based on parent and nursing staff interviews, estimated to save the state approximately $100,000 per child
• Premium Assistance Programs – what are they and could they help Connecticut’s uninsured? – Description of Medicaid premium assistance programs, challenges faced by other states and risks to Connecticut if implemented
• Considerable media outreach –
• Featured in front page article, "A Community for Special Families: State Bond Vote Today Could Create Housing with Built-in Medical Care", Hartford Courant, 5/11/04
• Authored, Letter to Editor, Hartford Courant, "Don’t Blame Medicaid", 12/25/04
• Quoted, "Harp Urges Liaison for Bed Funds", New Haven Register, 11/29/04
• Quoted, "Anthem, Business Owners Discuss Health Care Costs", New Haven Register, 7/9/04
• Student intern authored OP-Ed, "Paying a Price for the Uninsured", Stamford Advocate, 4/26/04
• Student intern authored OP-Ed, "Access to Health Care Beyond the Reach of Many", Stamford Advocate, 6/23/04
• CT Health Policy Project website Book Club was featured in A Shared Read – newsletter for book clubs
• Provided technical assistance and research to dozens of consumers, policymakers, advocates, and providers
• MOST IMPORTANT – provided assistance to dozens of uninsured and underinsured Connecticut consumers seeking health care coverage

Organizational Accomplishments:

• Updated Project website – visits to the site growing, averaged 7500 visits/month over the year; popular monthly web quizzes on Connecticut health topics
• CT Health Notes biweekly listserv enjoyed steady growth in subscriptions
• Secured new funding to facilitate creation of Connecticut Health Economic Sufficiency Report (CTHESS)
• Renewed funding for Consumer Health Action Network
• Hired Carla Taymans as Senior Policy Fellow
• Hired Marina Spitkovskaya into fall to continue her summer work on voter registration drive begun as Dwight Hall intern at the Project
• Very successful Fifth Anniversary Party at The Space in Hamden, September

Lessons Learned:

• Continued appreciation of the wisdom of supporting consumers in their voice - not to speak for them - they are more powerful than we will ever be
• A long view is critical – it was important to recognize and prepare for the April 1st deadline for 13,000 HUSKY parents' coverage and begin In Their Own Words over a year before the deadline
• A stronger appreciation of describing the totality of consumers’ lives – being uninsured does not define anyone - the power of photography in communications with policymakers and the public
• Authentic consumer outreach to gather feedback is critical
• to ensure that we are accurately reading the "problem"
• to ensure that proposed policy solutions are realistic and likely to work
• to keep us honest, remind us who we work for, and why we do this
• It is critical to meet consumers where they are, respecting the realities of their lives, and not expect them to conform to usual practices of policymaking, but to find (or create) alternative mechanisms for them to share their wisdom with policymakers
• Gathering authentic consumer feedback is labor intensive – A very wise reporter said, "Getting the statistics is always the easy part of the story. Finding real people affected by policies, willing to talk, and appropriate for the story, is the really hard part."
• The power of honest conversation, developing relationships
• Take time to reflect on victories (they are there) and celebrate

Goals for Next Year:

• Build on In Their Own Words, continue to educate policymakers about the effects of being uninsured on real Connecticut families
• Consumer Health Cabinet - create a small, on-going, facilitated and supported group of consumers and high level policymakers meeting on a regular basis
• Begin advocacy and consumer information campaign about new "insurance products" including consumer-directed health plans, medical discount cards and out-right scams
• Continue consumer and policymaker education on upcoming issues and policy options including defined contributions and hospital debt collection
• Strengthen the Consumer Action Network - a supported, trained and active group of consumers who have a real impact on health policies working on their own agenda
• Continue CT Health Notes, Project website and Toolbox updates
• Support consumers in media outreach
• Provide productive student research experiences, building future health care leadership for Connecticut
• Continue collaboration with others on health policy research and consumer advocacy - build list of 150 organizations in Consumer Network
• Continue to monitor policy and budget changes, offer realistic affordable policy solutions
• Continue to serve consumers who call needing help