Access to Care
Health care reform and access to care are two issues that are essential in improving women’s wellness and preconception health. There has been and will continue to be considerable activity on these issues over the next several years. The purpose of this section of our website is to provide quick links to groups in the South to find current and relevant information about the changes and opportunities health care reform presents. Are we missing a good source? Please let us know.
Why does this issue matter to our region? In 2007, 18% of women (Age 18+) could not see a physician at some time in the past year due to cost. (RNDMU 2009) The percentage of women ages 15-44 in our region who were uninsured (2006-2008 average) ranged from 17.4% (TN) to 27% (FL) with six of our eight states above the national figure of 20.1%. (March of Dimes, Peristats)
The Federal Government has launched a website www.healthcare.gov to help individuals and groups better understand health care reform. We suggest you bookmark this site.
The Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) has followed health care reform very closely. They have offered (and continue to offer) a series of free webinars on related topics. Click here to access the comprehensive information they have available on their website. http://www.amchp.org/Advocacy/Pages/default.aspx
The Association for State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) also has very relevant information about health care reform and funding opportunities on their website at http://www.astho.org/Programs/Health-Reform/.
The National Association of State and County Health Officials (NACCHO) also has great information online at http://www.naccho.org/advocacy/health-reform.cfm.
The Medicaid Preconception Care Peer to Peer Learning Project was officially launched in April 2010 to bring together a number of states who had been working with Medicaid on various preconception / interconception / family planning waivers. The project was developed to provide a forum for these states to work together with national experts to answer questions around quality improvement, benefit design (eg content of a preconception care benefit), waivers, interagency work and eligibility for nonpregnant women as they relate to preconception health. This project is supported by the Commonwealth Fund, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and US DHHS and led by Kay Johnson of Johnson Group Consulting. The learning community includes Florida and North Carolina as well as Louisiana, Illinois, Oklahoma, California, and Texas. Check back to this website for ongoing updates and outputs from this project.
Family Planning is clearly a key issue for women of childbearing age. Medicaid Family Planning Waivers are one tool that a number of states in our region have used to increase access to contraception for women (and some men). The Guttmacher institute has published a state policy brief about State Medicaid Family Planning Eligibility Expansion as of July 1, 2010. To review this document, which includes a table showing the types of services and populations served by clicking here http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_SMFPE.pdf
One example of a state assessing the potential impact of health care reform can be seen in the May/June 2010 issue of the North Carolina Medical Journal titled What Does Health Care Reform Mean for North Carolina? To review the issue, click here.