Health Care For Olders

This Tuesday, September 13, 2011, Health Care For All will take to the streets! Every member of the Health Care For All staff will be out of the office today for a day of team building and strategic planning. We will begin with a vigorous citywide scavenger hunt before taking an aerial tour of the city at the Prudential Center and finally settling down at the John Hancock Conference Center where we will focus on the details for our strategic plan that will guide us through the next era of Health Care For All’s history. We know that this rapidly changing marketplace, and current escalating health care costs require that we remain vigilant in our pursuit of policies and health care practices that deliver high value and patient centered care.

As we gather for this Fall day of fun we will reflect on our current policy challenges – inadequate state revenue to address the growing needs of MA residents, breaking down and addressing entrenched health disparities, restoring adult dental services for MassHealth members, keeping children connected to their health care and care providers, addressing the barriers to behavioral health services, fostering environments for effective patient engagement and empowerment, preserving relationships between doctors, other care providers and their patients, making sure that health coverage means true health care access, and that Health Care For All can attract sufficient resources to support and sustain our efforts.

We also gather acutely aware of significant opportunities that are before us, most notably the opportunity to improve our health care delivery system through comprehensive payment reform. Finally, we gather in gratitude for each of you who supports our work, with your time, talent or treasure. We are grateful for your investment and continuing participation in our efforts. It is a privilege to represent the voice of health care consumers in the state that leads the nation in health care coverage – even in these very difficult economic times, more than 97% of Massachusetts residents have health care coverage!

So today, if you see groups of Health Care For All staff members in colorful team t-shirts taking pictures in spots all over this city, give them a shout out, and know that we are focused on working toward our mission of creating a consumer centered health care system that provides affordable, accessible, culturally competent, high quality care for everyone in Massachusetts, particularly the most vulnerable people among us.