Eighty representatives of HCFANY member groups gendand supporters came to Albany to network with other advocates, get updates on the fight for quality, affordable health care in New York, and plan strategy at HCFANY’s Annual Meeting on January 8.

Our guest speakers emphasized the continuing strong progress health reform is making, statewide and nationally.  Danielle Holahan, the Deputy Director of the NY State of Health, reported that the number of uninsured New Yorkers has declined by an estimated 700,000, lowering the uninsured rate to its lowest point in decades.  Jackie Cornell-Bechelli, the Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, similarly pointed to major gains in enrollment on the national level.

However, as a panel of HCFANY leaders emphasized, there’s still more work for us do to ensure that all New Yorkers have health insurance, that the coverage and care we receive is of high quality, and that consumers can effectively use their coverage.  They outlined HCFANY’s Legislative Agenda for 2016, including:

• state funding for Community Health Advocates, a program that helps consumers understand and effectively use their coverage and access care;
• the creation of a new program to fund community groups and small business-serving groups to do outreach to consumers in “hard to reach” communities; and
• funding to cover a small group of New York immigrants who are lawful residents but not covered under the new Essential Plan.

In the afternoon, participants broke into Planning Groups to develop strong campaigns to take action on HCFANY’s priority 2016 issues.  At the immigrant coverage breakout, advocates discussed the name and structure of this exciting new campaign and new partners we should reach out to. The outreach and consumer assistance breakout discussed best practices for reaching the uninsured.  The network adequacy group identified issues relating to network adequacy that diverse communities in New York experience, including rural communities and artists.  Finally, the payment and delivery system reform breakout talked about opportunities to bring consumer voices into the state’s transformation efforts, including organizing a caucus of consumer advocates participating in the payment and delivery system reform workgroups.

For more information on any of these initiatives, please contact Carrie Tracy at ctracy@cssny.org.