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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Debbie Veach, BSE, Paula Card-Higginson, BA, ELS, Kevin Ryan, JD, MA, and Jennifer L. Shaw, MAP, MPH. Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, 1401 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 300, Victory Building, Little Rock, AR 72201, 501-526-2264, ShawJenniferL@uams.edu

The Arkansas Health Insurance Expansion Roundtable's goal has been to assess the state's health insurance status and create local, state, and federal policy recommendations and strategies that enable Arkansans to access affordable health insurance. The 21-member Roundtable comprises purchasers, providers/insurers and consumers. A strategic innovation and planning model was used to create policy/legislation recommendations. A broad-based iterative process enabled members to learn from real-time data tools that combined primary and secondary survey data, study qualitative employer/community focus-group data, evaluate policy impact on access to care (e.g., HIPAA), gain new perspectives on problems facing the uninsured, develop a tolerance for experimentation, and achieve consensus. The partnership quickly gained political confidence and in 2004 Roundtable members served a sentinel capacity in establishing and implementing a joint legislative committee on health insurance/prescription drugs. Guided by agreed-upon core assumptions, Roundtable recommendations implemented to date include increasing Medicaid prenatal coverage eligibility, converting ARKids First to SCHIP, and expanding senior drug coverage and Medicaid coverage for low-income 19-64-year-olds. In early 2005, the Roundtable voiced that “incremental change does not seem to be working” in health coverage reform and voiced a desire to become engaged in a study of major health reform options. Recently, the Roundtable mapped future healthcare scenarios (2005-2015) encompassing legal, sociocultural, economic, and political issues. Created by a graphic artist/recorder, this map provides a visual framework for thinking about present and future challenges in healthcare from local, national, and global perspectives and explores the ideas of healthcare as a right versus a benefit.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participants will be able to

• Discuss a model used by one state to enact policies and legislation with a goal of expanding health insurance by working with a coalition of purchasers, providers/insurers/ and consumers
• Recognize the value of incorporating community, public, private, networks into partnerships that can deal with issues related to the uninsured
• Define how mapping by a graphic recorder can be used for planning and policy development

Keywords: Partnerships, Insurance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No