Expand Health Coverage - Community Insight continued - The Colorado Trust

BACK

It can be daunting to figure out strategies and policies to achieve substantial, significant changes to such a massive, failing structure. Tweak one part and there may be consequences to another part that were never intended, because while not integrated, the parts are interrelated.

What can effective advocacy do? The Paycheck Away project is an example of a collaborative effort with 10 nonprofit partners to understand and reveal the issues facing low-income Coloradans. During town hall meetings in six communities, the coalition found that three issues pose persistent challenges: adequate food, shelter or housing resources, and access to affordable health care. These Coloradans are one paycheck away from hunger, homelessness and forgoing needed health care.

CCHI worked with our partners to produce a video documenting some of the stories we heard from Coloradans around the state. Sharing these personal experiences with legislators contributed first to the development of the Poverty Caucus in the Colorado General Assembly and, ultimately, to the passage of House Bill 09-1064, which creates a legislative committee to study poverty issues and address economic opportunity. Real Coloradans brought the intersection of poverty and the economy into sharp focus. Understanding how poverty plays into the dynamics of health care access is critically important to creating solutions that work for everyone.


 "EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE ACCESS TO
 HEALTH CARE THAT IS APPROPRIATE,
 AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE

in the most profound sense of those words. Increasingly, consumers and patients are using their voices, their experiences and their power to help create solutions to our health care crisis."

 CCHI has been working for more than a year with the Colorado Center on Law and Policy to shine a "Spotlight on Health Care" by touring cities and towns across the state with a compelling presentation about why health care reform is so important. Rather than endorsing any particular proposal or solution for health care reform, this facilitated discussion aims to give participants a framework with which to understand this complex system and the various policy solutions being considered.

To date, Spotlight on Health Care has reached more than 700 consumers through 22 presentations in urban, rural and frontier communities across the state. We are giving Coloradans outside the health care policy world real tools they can use to contribute to health care reform. We are working to connect people to the policymaking and legislative arenas, so that elected officials see the faces and hear the voices of the people behind the statistics. Policy decisions have a real impact on access to health care and the lack of access to health care in Colorado. Expanding civic engagement in health care reform efforts demands and encourages the political will for change.

Yes, changing the health care system is challenging. If consumers aren't involved in health care reform, the changes won't meet the needs of the people who use it: us.

Advocacy matters. A united consumer voice can create health care security for all and will strengthen Colorado's kids, families, communities and the economy at a time when it is needed most – right now.

The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to barrier-free, quality health care that is affordable to all.