ACTS-CNY

On November 18, 2007, ACTS held its first Public Meeting in three years where our Healthcare Taskforce received a pledge from the county executive as well as from state representatives, the regional governor’s representative and U.S. Rep. James Walsh to work on ensuring more effective outreach, including funding, to enroll children in Child Health Plus.  Our taskforce found that at least 7,500 children in Onondaga County remain uninsured although they are eligible for Child Health Plus.  

Since our public meeting, we have gathered a coalition of county and state officials and interested private insurers – Fidelis, Excellus Blue Cross-Blue Shield, United HealthCare, and Total Care.  We have been meeting monthly as a collaborative group of grass roots organizations, health care providers, health insurance companies, Dr. Rueben Cowart (CEO of Syracuse Community Health Center), Mr. Dan Young of the Governor’s office, Onondaga County Health Department representatives, Onondaga County Social Services Commissioner Mr. David Sutkowy and representatives of the Onondaga County Executive’s office.

The following is the letter we sent, with the signatures of both Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Mrs. Linda Ervin, acting co-chair of the ACTS Healthcare Taskforce, to the NY state governor:

As you know, the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (A.C.T.S.), a network of community organizations, has convened a coalition of experts, community members, and practitioners to address the barriers to acquiring public health insurance coverage for children and families.

This committee has developed specific recommendations and is requesting help from the Governor’s office in reducing obstacles for families enrolling in public health insurance. The following recommendations represent three sustainable systems changes that would benefit all of New Y;ork State, and one that will specifically increase enrollment in Onondaga County.

They are:

·         Waive the fee for obtaining an original birth certificate for all Facilitated Enrollers.

·         Review the literacy level of the State application, and make the necessary changes so that it reads at or below a 4^th grade reading level in all available languages.

·         Allow Facilitated Enrollers to use information that applicants have already provided to government programs such as Food Stamps and HEAP. Many applicants for public health insurance already have applications on file for other services that require similar documentation. This would require changes to the state application process.

·         Establish a fund of $40,000 for a localized media campaign, unique to the needs of our community. Currently, the New York State Department of Health only allows localities to use Sate developed promotional materials, thereby limiting a community’s ability to address specific needs of their population.

It is our intent to serve as a model to other communities across the state, and with your help, we are certain that barriers to providing health insurance to all New Yorkers will be reduced.

We look forward to your support of our request and thank you for ensuring healthier children and families in Onondaga County.

We are presently working with the governor’s regional representative as well as our state legislators in order to address the points we’ve put forth in the letter above. 

Furthermore, the ACTS Healthcare Taskforce has met with Onondaga County school superintendents in order to begin an outreach strategy through school districts throughout the county.

In September 2007 after the extensive listening campaign in the congregations and associations involved with ACTS, health care became one of the issues chosen at the Issues Assembly.

After much research and development, the core issue that was refined and presented at the Public Meeting on November 18, 2007 was the 7500 children in Onondaga County who are without health insurance according to Dr. Cynthia Morrow, Onondaga County Health Commissioner. Dr. Morrow indicated that the children are qualified for the public insurance yet are not covered. At the Public Meeting, we received positive answers from potential allies from Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, Congressman Jim Walsh, State Assembly members Al Stirpe, Joan Christensen, SEIU and others.

Since November, the members of the task force have been very busy establishing partnerships with various stakeholders. We have been blessed to have an Intern, Monique Brantley from Syracuse University who is helping with data analysis. We have also begun collaboration with the insurers who provide the coverage, the Onondaga County DSS office, the New York State Health Department, Syracuse Community Health Center, County Health Department, County Executive’s office, Governor Paterson’s office and have been meeting monthly. We have been receiving many calls asking to work with us to help solve this issue of children without coverage.

Our most recent meeting of the collaborative group was held on Thursday, March 20, at which there were representatives from all stakeholder groups. We discussed the barriers to enrolling families and the system as it exists now. The governor’s office can certainly help us and a letter is being formulated to him about our needs in helping remove some of the barriers. Amanda Nestor of the Onondaga County Health Department will work on a draft letter. We envision having something to report from the governor’s office by our banquet in May.

The goal of the health care task force is to have a system in place to identify the 7500 children, enroll them and prevent our children from falling through the cracks in the future. With the help of our partners, we expect to accomplish our initial goal and to have a foundation to explore future areas of concern in health care.

Linda Ervin