DENVER, CO – The Colorado Health Foundation announced today $2.925 million in general operating support to strengthen Colorado’s network of consumer health advocacy organizations. The funding kicks off the Foundation’s four-year initiative designed to ensure public policy adequately addresses Colorado consumers’ needs for a health insurance system that is stable, affordable, and adequate.
The grants will support organizations that represent a diversity of Colorado voices in advocating for health coverage related policy issues. They include: Colorado Center for Law and Policy; Colorado Children’s Campaign; Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved; Colorado Consumer Health Initiative; Colorado Cross Disability Coalition; Colorado Gerontological Society; Colorado Legal Services; Colorado Progressive Coalition; Mental Health America Colorado; NAMI Colorado; One Colorado; Small Business Majority; and Together Colorado.
“These organizations have a strong track record of success in actively and authentically engaging the consumer voice in health policy discussions,” said Kelly Dunkin, vice president of philanthropy for the Colorado Health Foundation. “Collectively, their work ensures individual Coloradans, especially those experiencing barriers to care, are represented in policy decisions that affect their ability to access high-quality, affordable health care.”
The first round of grants are part of an innovative, adaptive funding approach aimed at ensuring Colorado has an effective field of consumer advocates and consumers proactively influencing public policy decisions regarding health coverage and the cost of care. The initiative employs multiple types of funding, including general operating grants, awarded in 2014 and 2016, program grants awarded annually in June, and rapid response grants designed to adjust to the shifting health care political terrain.
As part of this strategy, Colorado advocates recently convened to discuss the current health policy environment, the viability of specific policy targets and what supports advocates will need to be effective in the coming year. A new brief shares the outcomes of that meeting, including the status of health reform implementation; Colorado’s current health policy environment; the viability of specific policy targets in this environment; advocacy strategies and tactics likely to be effective in this environment; and supports that may help advocates to be successful in 2015.