NEW ENGLAND ALLIANCE FOR CHILDREN'S HEALTH

In the health care reform debate, children have a strong advocate in the New England Alliance for Children's Health (NEACH).

An initiative of Boston-based Community Catalyst, NEACH's mission is to support public policies that advance children's health care coverage, access and quality.This aligns with the Connecticut Health Foundation's (CT Health's) mission of improving the health of all Connecticut residents, as well as with CT Health's history of advocating for children's health policy issues.

Specifically, the focus of the two-year $100,000 CT Health grant NEACH received in 2008 was to:

• Ensure reauthorization/implementation of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
• Unify/support state-based organizations in national pediatric health reform
• Increase support to organizations to improve/defend children's health care coverage in their state
• Use NEACH's CHIP campaign as a model to launch a regional pediatric quality of care campaign
• Implement a plan to engage business leaders in children's health care advocacy

"We work with many New England organizations to protect and expand Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)," says Amy Rosenthal, NEACH project director."By organizing stakeholders into a regional collaboration, NEACH is impacting policy in individual states, across the region and on the national level."

For NEACH, stakeholders include advocates, physicians, hospitals, educators, legal experts, business leaders, religious groups and consumers.

To achieve its goals, NEACH engaged in a variety of activities, such as:

• E-mailing alerts to regional partners about CHIP reauthorization legislation to help them educate policy-makers and the public (reauthorization passed in February 2009)
• E-mailing alerts on children's issues in national health reform, including bill summaries, descriptions of amendments affecting children's programs, legislative timetables and messaging
• Developing long-term ways to support state-based advocacy for children's health care coverage, including web pages for each state that include the latest information and developments
• Finalizing in early 2009 NEACH's Pediatric Quality of Care Matrix defining pediatric quality, which was used to develop a Pediatric Quality Menu of Policy Solutions.The menu was shared with the Senate Finance Committee and New England Congressional delegation to raise awareness about quality issues.
• Developing materials for the business community, including a document that outlines the business community's perspectives on child health care issues, and a document with recommendation to help health care advocates better understand and work with the business community

NEACH's future plans include:

• Exploring opportunities to expand its coalition or replicate it in a new region
• Enhancing or formalizing its relationships with national organizations, such as the Georgetown Center for Children and Families

  
  "We've played a pivotal role in federal and state health care debates to ensure that all children in need have access to quality health care," says Rosenthal."And we'll continue to look for opportunities to influence policy."

Website: http://www.childrenshealthne.org/