Lessons from health reform activism: Tools and strategies that work

1. Lessons from health reform activism: Tools and strategies that work Lois Uttley, MPP Co-founder, Raising Women’s Voices APHA annual meeting November 9, 2010

2. RAISING WOMEN’S VOICES A Project of The Avery Institute for Social Change The National Women’s Health Network And The MergerWatch Project of Community Catalyst Our goal: ensuring that women’s health needs across the lifespan are identified, articulated and addressed in health reform

3. Challenges for women’s healthadvocates in health reform • Many women’s health advocates had not been part of the health reform movement over the last decade. • We were unfamiliar with some of the key issues and concepts, and unsure what we would get out of health reform. • Health reform advocates were wary of us, worried abortion would sink health reform.

4. RWV’s approach • Listen to women about what we and our families need from health reform. Start at the grassroots. • Educate ourselves and women’s health advocates about health care reform concepts and terminology. • Mobilize women to get involved in broad-based health reform coalitions in their states, become trusted partners whose views can be respected. • Strategically influence the development of health reform policies, so that the needs of women and our families are addressed.

5. Listen: Women’s stories shape our vision • Held small-group discussions with diverse women: teenagers, young mothers, older women, women of color, immigrants, victims of domestic violence • Their concerns formed the basis for our “Women’s Vision for Quality, Affordable Health Care for All.” • This approach grounded all of our policy analysis and strategy in the real-life experiences of women and their families.

6. Women’s health across the lifespan • Reproductive health a priority, but also.. • End to pre-existing condition denials. • Affordability of coverage. • Availability of coverage through all of life’s transitions, including school-to-work, divorce, job loss, widowhood. • Help navigating confusing insurance choices and rules.

7. Educate: Explaining what’s at stake for women in health reform • 2008 RWV national conference in Boston spotlighted women’s health issues in reform. • Trained 260 women from 28 states.

8. Educate: Helping women grasp health reform concepts • Webinars, calls, presentations • Crucial during Congressional debate, as proposals kept changing. • Now focusing on state implementation of health reform.

9. Mobilize: Building and empowering a national advocacy network • Recruited RWV coordinators in 22 states • Formed partnerships with progressive health reform groups, such as Families USA, Herndon Alliance, Health Care for America Now; • Provided fact sheets and talking points to women’s health advocates; • Motivated thousands of advocates through biweekly RWV e-newsletter and active blog

10. Mobilize: Women speak out at RWV forums • Women tell stories about getting breast cancer and losing health insurance, having family members denied treatment by insurers claiming pre-existing condition exclusions, and many other issues.

11. Mobilize: Speak-outs held across the nation • Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Madison and Milwaukee, WI; Greensboro, NC; Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD

12. Mobilize: Women hit the streets for health reform! • Joined other health reform advocacy groups in rallies, marches, protests. • Demonstrated the power of women’s health advocates as a constituency

13. Mobilize: Teach-ins • RWV and its coordinators sponsor teach-ins to answer community questions about confusing health reform proposals. • Stupak abortion ban a particular concern.

14. Influence: RWV regional coordinators go to Capitol Hill • Coordinators from around the country gather in DC for strategy meeting • Visit their members of Congress on Capitol Hill

15. Back to the grassroots: what we got! • Community sessions tell women what they and their families get. • Good news: Young adult ability to stay on family insurance plans; no co-pays for preventive services, etc. • Bad news: Immigration exclusions, abortion restrictions

16. RWV in implementation process • Federal level: Commenting on HHS implementing regulations, with 2 main goals: • Urging swift addition of contraception to the list of preventive services that must be covered with no co-insurance. • Opposing abortion ban in Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans.

17. Campaign uses women’s stories • Gathered powerful stories of why women with serious illnesses need abortion coverage to protect their health. • Created video using actors and posted it on Youtube. • Viewers send emails urging HHS and White House to lift the abortion ban in PCIPs.

18. Influencing state implementation • Training RWV coordinators on what’s a stake for women in Medicaid expansion, state insurance exchanges. • Coaching them to get seats on state advisory boards and work within broad-based coalitions.

19. Get involved with Raising Women’s Voices • Visit our website at www.raisingwomensvoices.net • Sign up for our Action Alerts and e-newsletter by contactinginfo@raisingwomensvoices.net