Five million families and children will now sleep a little easier. How will the new Latino/Hispanic immigrant status impact healthcare policy?

Being “in the shadows” has long been a healthcare access issue.  The broken healthcare system has been aggravated by a broken immigration system. Immigration and healthcare are tied together in many ways, especially for the economically disadvantaged.

According to the New York Times:

What Is President Obama’s Immigration Plan?

President Obama announced on Thursday evening a series of executive actions to grant up to five million unauthorized immigrants protection from deportation. The president is also planning actions to direct law enforcement priorities toward criminals, allow high-skilled workers to move or change jobs more easily, and streamline visa and court procedures, among others. NOV. 20, 2014 RELATED ARTICLE

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Who could be affected?

The president’s plan is expected to affect up to five million of the nation’s unauthorized immigrant population, currently 11.4 million according to the Migration Policy Institute. It would create a new program of deferrals for approximately 3.7 undocumented parents of American citizens or legal permanent residents who have been in the country for at least five years. Deferrals would include authorization to work and would be granted for three years at a time.

It would also expand a program created by the administration in 2012 called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which allows young people who were brought into the country as children to apply for deportation deferrals and work permits. The plan would extend eligibility to people who entered the United States as children before January 2010 (the cutoff is currently June 15, 2007). It would also increase the deferral period to three years from two years and eliminate the requirement that applicants be under 31 years old. About 1.2 million young immigrants are currently eligible, and the new plan would expand eligibility to approximately 300,000 more.

It would not provide a path to full legal status or benefits under the Affordable Care Act. Officials have said that the president’s plan will not provide specific protection for farm workers or parents of DACA-eligible immigrants.

Filed under: ACA and Medicaid, Blogosphere, Data Trends - American Demographics and Public Opinion, Family Policy, Feminization of Poverty, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Immigration, Latinos, Maternal and Child Health, Medicaid, News, Public Health, Public Policy, census; immigration; births; fertility; Latinos; Hispanics; Mexican Americans; child health

America needs help building a more perfect union, again? “Scarcity changes how we think”

The current Republican victory either threatens healthcare access success or saves the day.  Perhaps it depends on what ideas you have to form an opinion on the matter.  Thousands of people inherit political and controversial opinions from their parents or grandparents.  But this is not our grandparent’s America.   Leadership today, and ideas to formulate solutions to our society’s most vexing social and economic challenges, must be as innovative as the ideas our forefathers forged to build our constitution.  They broke new ground to form a more perfect union.

America needs help in being more perfect today.  We need new ideas to help us support new social investments to address our collective responsibility to make sure that our form of government, and the leaders we put in charge, keep a fair balance regarding the social contract that makes us the greatest nation on earth.  Perhaps reading the current book “Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much,” by Mullainathan and Sharif, could help?

Jus about a year ago an important book was published regarding scarcity.  We were all probably a bit busy, so it did not cross our minds.  Interestingly, the book is about the very social and psychological reality that caused many of us to miss the opportunity.   We just don’t seem to have enough time in the day to do the things we need to do to make our life more manageable, more simple and, perhaps, more enjoyable.  Without mentioning the dated and overused thought model, “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,” we are reminded of a person’s lack of efficacy when overwhelmed by environmental stimuli that dictate how we feel and perhaps what we do.  Such is the case in this important book on the effects on our minds and how our mind works when confronted by daily challenges.  The mind, the book’s thesis goes, has limits (“bandwidth”), and its focus is bound by our fixation on what matters among the many things coming at us.  The book is important for public health, healthcare services and health education, for example, because it gives us a less pejorative and judgmental way to look at people misbehaving.  Especially behaving in ways that seem irrational, or worse, lazy or undeserving, to us. Perhaps as health professionals, funders, planner and policy makers, we are distanced from the daily lives and realities of those confronted with our well intentioned helping systems and recommendations.   It can be daunting and frustrating.   This book may give us  hope.

Mullainathan and Sharif elaborate on a conception of the haves and the have nots that is nuanced, insightful and perhaps more pragmatic than any construct we have heretofore seen; Yes, in the war on poverty.  To be sure, decades have passed since our last great poverty reform (PRWORA, 1996 or Bill Clinton’s Welfare Reform Law).  We now have the ACA reform (Barak Obama’s Law).  This second salvo on our nation’s efforts to address the needs of the “have nots” is once again putting the poor under the looking glass.  Back in the 90s version we were looking at people, being helped, being too lazy and needing to be made to work while getting help in order to get off of the government dole.  Millions of people were thrown off of the welfare rolls and when it was all said and done a Government Accounting Office (GAO) report declared that the majority of people remaining on the rolls were ill and not employable.  This was an important report, by “objective” pundits representing the federal government; and you would think that would have been enough to usher in healthcare reform to address the urgent plight of this government policy defined and “vetted” group.  It wasn’t.

Perhaps due to our national political discourse and the focus on levels of unemployment that could not longer be explained by the “lazy people on welfare” phenomenon, the nation began to focus on working people, many who were not faring much better than people on welfare.  The struggling middle class and the “deserving working poor” became the popular political constituency.  The increasingly divided electorate called for new issue that could wedge open the door to a new group that could tip the electoral balance.  This need fueled to drive for an electoral strategy focus on new votes and created the conditions and demand for strategies promising to move this demographic to the polls.  Enter today’s healthcare reform scenario.

Perhaps this is why healthcare reform remains a political fight with uncertainties and future possibilities for failure.  Just as the end of the PRWORA’s success, in throwing the poor of the welfare rolls, may now echo the present reality where we will have disrupted thousands of families’ lives, only to throw them off the insurance rolls.

“Scarcity captures us because it is important, worthy of our attention, but we cannot fully choose when our minds will be riveted. We focus on scarcity even when we do not want to. We think about that impending project not only when we sit down to work on it but also when we are at home trying to help our child with her homework. The same automatic capture that helps us focus becomes a burden in the rest of life. Because we are preoccupied by scarcity, because our minds constantly return to it, we have less mind to give to the rest of life.”

via Scarcity changes how we think – Salon.com.

Filed under: Behavioral Health Outcomes, Blogosphere, Children and Poverty, Congressional Activity, consumers, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms

Gap in Diet Quality Between Wealthiest and Poorest Americans Doubles, Study Finds

Healthy food is not easy to prepare, does not have a very long shelf life, and is more expensive than cheaper canned and mass produced “food” that contains fillers and other ingredients that return adequate profits, facilitate transportation, refrigeration, and distribution.

America’s food consumption and health connection problem goes well beyond socioeconomic issues of lack of cash and proximity and access to healthy food.  Our society’s economy produces commodities and commodities are distributed based on market forces of supply and demand.  Supply and demand pressures have thus far overpowered the traditional forces on the side of promoting community health.  The loosing forces are:

• Social do-gooders

• Philanthropy

• Public health officials

• Conscientious parents

• Suburban focused and lead prevention efforts

In short, economic forces have thus far trumped social ideas and groups aiming to undo what are basically the macro and micro consequences of food production and distribution.

Any successful efforts in this area will have to have for-profit corporations at the table with philanthropy and government officials providing public policy leadership and incentives that appeal to corporate America’s economic interests and social responsibility (good corporate citizen) commitments.

More via Gap in Diet Quality Between Wealthiest and Poorest Americans Doubles, Study Finds.

Filed under: ACA and Medicaid, Behavioral Health Outcomes, Blogosphere, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, News, Parenting, Philanthropy, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, Public Health, Public Policy

RWJF Initiative on the Future of Nursing | The information from the experts has been published. What are you and other community stakeholders doing about it?

Are you familiar with the RWJ report titled “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” by the Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Penn Medicine (University of Pennsylvania Health System)?

As we know, initiatives like the one that produced this report, as recent as 2011, come and go.  What remains is the report and what committed professional like yourself and our colleagues do with the information.

We at The Policy ThinkShop were inspired by a nurse colleague not only to pullout this report but to post a comment on our blog for your benefit.

The link to the report follows:

http://www.thefutureofnursing.org/sites/default/files/Future%20of%20Nursing%20Report_0.pdf

According to the report:

“In 2008, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) approached the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to propose a partnership to assess and respond to the need to transform the nursing profession. Recognizing that the nursing profession faces several challenges in fulfilling the promise of a reformed health care system and meeting the nation’s health needs, RWJF and the IOM established a 2-year Initiative on the Future of Nursing. The cornerstone of the initiative is this committee, which was tasked with producing a report containing recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing, including changes in public and institutional policies at the national, state, and local levels (Box S-1). Following the report’s release, the IOM and RWJF will host a national conference on November 30 and December 1, 2010, to begin a dialogue on how the report’s recommendations can be translated into action. The report will also serve as the basis for an extensive implementation phase to be facilitated by RWJF.”

The report explains the committee of experts charge in producing the study and report as follows:

The committee may examine and produce recommendations related to the following issues, with the goal of identifying vital roles for nurses in designing and implementing a more effective and efficient health care system:

• Reconceptualizing the role of nurses within the context of the entire workforce, the shortage, societal issues, and current and future technology;

• Expanding nursing faculty, increasing the capacity of nursing schools, and redesigning nursing education to assure that it can produce an adequate number of well prepared nurses able to meet current and future health care demands;

• Examining innovative solutions related to care delivery and health professional education by focusing on nursing and the delivery of nursing services; and

• Attracting and retaining well prepared nurses in multiple care settings, including acute, ambulatory, primary care, long term care, community and public health.

“In 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation approached the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to propose a partnership between the two organizations. The resulting collaboration became the two-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the IOM. The committee was chaired by former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and the goal was to look at the possibility of transforming the nursing profession to meet the challenges of a changing health care landscape. The report produced by the committee, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, makes specific and directed recommendations in the areas of nurse training, education, professional …”

More on the initiative via About | RWJF Initiative on the Future of Nursing.

Filed under: ACA and Medicaid, Blogosphere, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Leadership, Maternal and Child Health, News, Philanthropy, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, Public Health, Public Policy, Nursing

A toolbox for promoting and supporting a healthier lifestyle for all Americans: Ideas, Activities and Outcomes | LinkedIn

Suggestions, resources and ongoing support to help you understand and address ongoing changes in our healthcare system for you, your family and your community:

We all want to improve our health, the wellbeing of our families and of our community.

Much of what is needed to fix our healthcare system has already been talked about, written and read. We know so much but so few of us act on it.

What remains to be done is to build coalitions and groups that understand how to go about educating their friends, families and communities on how to create a healthier environment that helps people live healthier lives and to take action to improve our community’s quality of life. We must do this one community at a time. Where do we start and what are the tools we will need to get the job done?

The Policy ThinkShop is an internet link and resource rich website (blog) that is dedicated to helping you learn and teach others about improving your family and community. After you read this article go to The Policy ThinkShop to get the rest of the information you may need:

https://policyabcs.wordpress.com

Other popular healthcare reform information links:

https://policyabcs.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/the-policy-thinkshop-brings-your-attention-to-the-latest-resources-on-the-aca-reform-survey-of-non-group-health-insurance-enrollees-the-henry-j-kaiser-family-foundation/

https://policyabcs.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/find-out-how-your-state-is-doing-on-aca-implementation-health-policy-center-at-the-urban-institute-independent-research-for-better-health-policy/

https://policyabcs.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/will-those-with-cancelled-insurance-policies-be-better-off-in-aca-marketplaces/

https://policyabcs.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/a-simple-list-to-keep-you-on-top-of-the-current-healthcare-battle-a-very-quick-guide-to-health-insurance-exchanges-kaiser-health-news/

Health ThinkShop recommended reading on healthcare change and healthcare system challenges we face:

http://books.google.com/books?The SAGE Handbook of Interpersonal Communication fourth edition

http://books.google.com/books Health Behavior Theory for Public Health PRINCIPLES, FOUNDATIONS, AND APPLICATIONS

More via A toolbox for promoting and supporting a healthier lifestyle for all Americans: Ideas, Activities and Outcomes | LinkedIn.

Filed under: ACA and Medicaid, Behavioral Health Outcomes, Blogosphere, Civic Engagement, Health and Exercise, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform

A Time to Read, Think and Act: Investing in the Health of Our Children and Communities – A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Report and Initiative

The Policy ThinkShop provides you with the key reports and policy papers needed to help  you participate in the current national debate addressing the implementation of the ACA insurance reform and in the ongoing mobilization of the philanthropic sector needed to transform how we view and support our own health and wellbeing within the lifestyle choices available to us in our communities, employment, educational system and civic life.

Building a healthier America will require much more than giving people health insurance cards

Investing in community health makes perfect economic, moral and public health sense.  But this lesson is lost on politics.  The nation’s corrosive political discourse consistently obfuscates the growing national consensus that healthcare dollars alone cannot give us a healthy society.

RWJF is developing a vision of good health that begins with individuals in their community environments.  This new approach to talking about the state of our healthcare system and of the health of our citizens goes beyond the traditional debate about healthcare costs, the need for a more cost-effective healthcare system that focuses on prevention of disease; and it goes beyond the need for access to and delivery of quality healthcare services that lead  to improvements in health status for most Americans.  This new focus centers on individuals, their health related behaviors and the social context in which those behaviors occur.  The idea is that investing in a community environment that promotes a healthy lifestyle will prevent disease and healthcare problems before they arise.  This in turn will lessen the burden on our currently expensive and inefficient healthcare system.

The RWJF initiative to promote a healthier America is defined and operationalized in the following report. This vision also coincides with the current interest in ACA healthcare insurance reform.  The second report which follows also addresses why all of the states should see the current medicaid expansion as economically beneficial in terms of increased revenue coming from the federal government and costs savings coming directly from their investment in medicaid expansion at the local level.

New Recommendations from the RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America

A review of state-level fiscal studies found comprehensive analyses from 16 diverse states. Each analysis concluded that expansion helps state budgets. State savings and new state revenues exceeded increased state Medicaid expenses, with the federal government paying a high share of expansion costs. Even if future lawmakers reduce federal Medicaid spending, high federal matching rates are likely to remain at the ACA’s enhanced rates, given historic patterns. Facing bipartisan gubernatorial opposition, Congress lowered the federal share of Medicaid spending just once since 1980, while cutting Medicaid eligibility, services, and provider payments more than 100 times. Medicaid expansion thus offers significant state-level fiscal and economic benefits, along with increased health coverage.

More via: http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/reports/2014/rwjf409002

 

What Is the Result of States Not Expanding Medicaid?

A review of state-level fiscal studies found comprehensive analyses from 16 diverse states. Each analysis concluded that expansion helps state budgets. State savings and new state revenues exceeded increased state Medicaid expenses, with the federal government paying a high share of expansion costs. Even if future lawmakers reduce federal Medicaid spending, high federal matching rates are likely to remain at the ACA’s enhanced rates, given historic patterns. Facing bipartisan gubernatorial opposition, Congress lowered the federal share of Medicaid spending just once since 1980, while cutting Medicaid eligibility, services, and provider payments more than 100 times. Medicaid expansion thus offers significant state-level fiscal and economic benefits, along with increased health coverage.

More via: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/413192-What-is-the-Result-of-States-Not-Expanding-Medicaid.pdf

 

via Time to Act: Investing in the Health of Our Children and Communities – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

 

 

Filed under: Aging, Behavioral Health Outcomes, Blogosphere, Children and Poverty, Civic Engagement, consumers, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform

American unions membership declines as public support fluctuates | Pew Research Center

The Polity ThinkShop brings you this important report on the State of our American State

Have unions been dealt yet another blow, now ironically by the well intentioned ACA reform?  

If the federal government mandates that business and individuals obtain insurance is this setting a president for the federal government to regulate and mandate worker gains without the use of union muscle?

These are provocative questions, at least for people who still remember the sacrifices that were made to create unions and the horrible conditions that preceded them.

“Last week’s vote by workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tenn. plant against joining the United Auto Workers union — despite VW’s tacit encouragement — points up the challenges faced by U.S. organized labor. Even though unions retain much public support, the share of American workers who actually belong to one has been falling for decades and is at its lowest level since the Great Depression.

In a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June 2013, about half (51%) of Americans said they had favorable opinions of labor unions, versus 42% who said they had unfavorable opinions about them. That was the highest favorability rating since 2007, though still below the 63% who said they were favorably disposed toward unions in 2001. In a separate 2012 survey, 64% of Americans agreed that unions were necessary to protect working people (though 57% also agreed that unions had “too much power”).”

More via American unions membership declines as public support fluctuates | Pew Research Center.

Filed under: ACA and Medicaid, Blogosphere, Civic Engagement, consumers, Government Works?, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Job Sector, News, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, Public Health, Public Policy, Public Sector

What Is the Result of States Not Expanding Medicaid?

Half the country seems to be moving along with ACA reform and the other half are paying a price for not fully participating.  According to an Urban Institute report released this month, the nearly half of states that have not expanded medicaid under ACA implementation may have missed an important economic boost during these tough economic times.

“In the 24 states that have not expanded Medicaid, 6.7 million residents are projected to remain uninsured in 2016 as a result. These states are foregoing $423.6 billion in federal Medicaid funds from 2013 to 2022, which will lessen economic activity and job growth. Hospitals in these 24 states are also slated to lose a $167.8 billion (31 percent) boost in Medicaid funding that was originally intended to offset major cuts to their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.

A review of state-level fiscal studies found comprehensive analyses from 16 diverse states. Each analysis concluded that expansion helps state budgets. State savings and new state revenues exceeded increased state Medicaid expenses, with the federal government paying a high share of expansion costs. Even if future lawmakers reduce federal Medicaid spending, high federal matching rates are likely to remain at the ACA’s enhanced rates, given historic patterns. Facing bipartisan gubernatorial opposition, Congress lowered the federal share of Medicaid spending just once since 1980, while cutting Medicaid eligibility, services, and provider payments more than 100 times. Medicaid expansion thus offers significant state-level fiscal and economic benefits, along with increased health coverage.”

The Policy ThinkShop provides you with this link to the full report: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/413192-What-is-the-Result-of-States-Not-Expanding-Medicaid.pdf

Filed under: ACA and Medicaid, Blogosphere, consumers, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform

Robert Wood Johnson Leader Details Plan to Shift Health-Care Strategy – News – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

The Policy ThinkShop calls your attention to a very hopeful challenge being proposed by key health leaders and philanthropists nationwide and led by a tremendous investment and vision from the leadership of the RWJ Foundation.

A quote from our Policy ThinkShop comments on this issue:

“After many years of personal, familial and community health experience in the private and public health sectors, we can see real hope and investment in these words and nascent vision from Risa–namely that corporate good is finally being aligned with social good in the areas of personal, family and community health.

The hospital, pharmaceutical and academic sectors have traditionally focused on health as a disease problem and the various commodities and professions associated with the industry that evolved around personal, family, community and public health problems in general. Disease and social suffering have too often been rapped in the injurious cloak of stigma and disdain. Too often we see individual health problems in pejorative ways that lead us away from shared solutions because of the more salient confounding factors we “like” to see. Perhaps empowering the sick and the needy so that they have commitment and a voice to join the proposed transformation of our healthcare culture is a starting place. This can begin through improved interpersonal health communication processes in our health professions at the level of service, for example. It can also be complemented by a health department, by community, by neighborhood initiative that addresses health literacy efficacy on the part of parents, mothers and youth.”

Read the rest of our comment and share yours at the link below:

Robert Wood Johnson Leader Details Plan to Shift Health-Care Strategy – News – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas.

Filed under: access to education, Behavioral Health Outcomes, Blogosphere, Civic Engagement, consumers, Culture, Culture Think, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Leadership, News, Parenting, Philanthropy, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms

Health Literacy: Assess Your Practice

The North Carolina Program for Health Literacy has produced “Assess Your Practice” which included a questionnaire and tools.

The Policy ThinkShop provides this user-friendly link for your convenience:

http://www.nchealthliteracy.org/toolkit/tool2.pdf

The guide incorporates the Health Literacy Universal Precautions.

1. Improve Spoken Communication.

2. Improve Written Communication.

3. Improve Self-Management and Empowerment.

4. Improve Supportive Systems.

More via Health Literacy: Assess Your Practice.

Filed under: Behavioral Health Outcomes, Blogosphere, consumers, Culture Think, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform

The Policy ThinkShop brings your attention to the latest resources on the ACA reform: Survey of Non-Group Health Insurance Enrollees | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released its first survey of the population finding new health coverage under the recently implemented ACA reform.  The survey delineates two main groups taking advantage of the increased access to health insurance: those who had non-group coverage and those who had no insurance at all.  The experiences of these two groups may prove important, the report goes on to say, with significant implications on how the success of the ACA reform is judged.

Apparently, the success of the ACA reform in brining people into the insured fold may be limited by financial literacy, insurance literacy, and health literacy deficits evident in the Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

A preliminary read of the survey report findings by The Policy ThinkShop points to an emergent need to address health literacy in the newly covered group in order to ensure that coverage recipients understand how to take advantage of their presumed efficacy in the insurance market and in their presumed increased access to healthcare itself and cost saving prevention health services.  According to the survey:

“Health insurance is complicated, and many previous studies have documented gaps in health insurance literacy among consumers. The survey finds evidence of this among those who purchase their own coverage, with many respondents unable to answer some basic questions about their plans. For example, nearly one in five non-group enrollees (18 percent) say they don’t know the amount of their monthly premium and almost four in ten (37 percent) don’t know the amount of their annual deductible. Among those with ACA-compliant plans, three in ten (30 percent) say they don’t know the metal level of their plan (platinum, gold, silver or bronze), and among those who report getting a government subsidy to defray their premium cost, nearly half (47 percent) couldn’t say what the amount of the subsidy is.”

The survey report goes on to highlight the segment of the population surveyed who are more privileged because of their prior experience obtaining insurance:

 

“Some groups are more knowledgeable than others, including college graduates, those with higher incomes, and small business owners. Plan switchers, who likely have more experience buying coverage in the non-group market, are also more likely than those who were previously uninsured to be able to report the metal level of their plan and their premium and deductible amounts.”

Policy ThinkShop Policy Resources for you –

You can read the entire survey report at:

http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/survey-of-non-group-health-insurance-enrollees-findings-final1.pdf

Report Executive Summary

“January 1, 2014 marked the beginning of several provisions of the Affordable Care Act ACA making significant changes to the non-group insurance market, including new rules for insurers regarding who they must cover and what they can charge, along with the opening of new Health Insurance Marketplaces also known as “Exchanges” and the availability of premium and cost-sharing subsidies for individuals with low to moderate incomes. Data from the Department of Health and Human Services and others provide some insight into how many people purchased insurance using the new Marketplaces and the types of plans they picked, but much remains unknown about changes to the non-group market as a whole. The Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of Non-Group Health Insurance Enrollees is the first in a series of surveys taking a closer look at the entire non-group market. This first survey was conducted from early April to early May 2014, after the close of the first ACA open enrollment period. It reports the views and experience of all non-group enrollees, including those with coverage obtained both inside and outside the Exchanges, and those who were uninsured prior to the ACA as well as those who had a previous source of coverage non-group or otherwise.”

via Survey of Non-Group Health Insurance Enrollees | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Filed under: ACA and Medicaid, access to education, Aging, Behavioral Health Outcomes, Blogosphere, Children and Poverty, Civic Engagement, consumers, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Maternal and Child Health, Medicaid, Medicaid Expansion, News, Philanthropy, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, Public Health, Public Policy

Addressing health problems in your community takes more than understanding what causes them or who they impact most. | ‘A Starting Point for Change’: Fifth Edition of the County Health Rankings Released Today – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Addressing health problems in communities takes more than understanding what causes them or who they impact most.  It takes a motivated network of stakeholders to define policies, bring resources, and build appropriate programs.  What can you do to successfully convene and motivate local thought leaders to help you in your public health cause?

Motivating others to work with you requires a command of the relevant facts to build a reasonable conversation.  Commanding local data, defining local health problems (in terms of needed policies, plans and programs) will help you form a team of local stakeholders that can support your vision of a healthier community.

This year the RWJF released its fifth edition of its county health ranking report.  The report focuses on the relationship between how you feel and where you live.   The website provides a user friendly set of online tools for understanding demographic variables and performing health analysis that can help you increase your “health literacy” as a community member, stakeholder, policy maker and leader with a focus on addressing community health challenges.

The following resources will help you make progress on the health issues impacting your community.

 

The Policy ThinkShop provides you with the following summary of the findings and user friendly links to the website where you can plugin your state, county, etc., and get your data:

http://www.countyhealthrankings.org

Also, you can search the site for best practice programs and policies:

http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/roadmaps/what-works-for-health

 

“This year’s County Health Rankings report shows some important trends, including:

Teen birth rates have decreased about 25 percent since 2007.

The rate of preventable hospital stays decreased about 20 percent from 2003 to 2011.

Smoking rates dropped from 21 percent in 2005 to 18 percent in 2012.

Completion of at least some college attendance increased slightly from 59 percent in 2005 to 64 percent in 2012.

This year’s report also features several new measures:

Housing:

Almost 1 in 5 households are overcrowded, pose a severe cost burden, or lack adequate facilities to cook, clean, or bathe.

These problems are greatest on the East and West coasts, in Alaska, and in parts of the South.

Transportation:

More than three-quarters of workers drive to work alone and among them 33 percent drive longer than a half hour each way.

Driving contributes to physical inactivity, obesity and air pollution.

Food Environment:

People in many parts of the country face food insecurity or the threat of hunger and limited access to healthy foods, especially in counties in the Southwest, across parts of the South and in the Western United States.

Mental Health:

Amid growing attention to mental health care, the availability of mental health providers in the healthiest counties in each state is 1.3 times higher than in the least healthy counties.

The west and northeast regions of the country have the best access to mental health providers.

Injury-Related Deaths:

The third-leading cause of death in the United States, injury death rates are 1.7 times higher in the least healthy counties than in the healthiest counties.

These rates are particularly high in the Southwest, part of the Northwest including Alaska and in the East South Central and Appalachian regions.

Exercise Opportunities:

Access to parks or recreational facilities in the healthiest counties is 1.4 times higher than in the least healthy counties.”

More via ‘A Starting Point for Change’: Fifth Edition of the County Health Rankings Released Today – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Filed under: ACA and Medicaid, Aging, Behavioral Health Outcomes, Blogosphere, Civic Engagement, Data Trends - American Demographics and Public Opinion, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Medicaid Expansion, News, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms