Legislative Advocacy
The Pediatric Advocacy Program engages in a variety of legislative activities. Below is a description of a resident run advocacy project.
LPCH Resident: Arti Desai, MD
Universal Children’s Health Coverage: Uniting children’s hospitals to affect change
The purpose of this project is to build a coalition among children’s hospitals across the nation in support of universal health coverage for children. From our work with the “Stand Up for SCHIP” event, we have already generated a large group of children’s hospitals in support of this issue. We would like to build this group to generate a strong, unified pediatric voice to generate policy change regarding this issue. We will increase legislative action among pediatricians and children’s hospitals through various activities similar to the “Stand Up for SCHIP event”. Programming will be focused around the 2008 Presidential Election and the candidates’ platforms on children’s issues. We will also continue to support expanding funding for SCHIP. In the future, as our coalition grows stronger, we hope to increase access to medical care for our nation’s children, provide a shift in the reimbursement scheme for physicians and hospitals, so they have more incentive to care for low-income families, and decrease the inefficiencies to control cost for children’s health care.
Our partners in this project will be other children’s hospitals around the country, and their support, ideas and resources will be essential to the success of this coalition. We would also like to partner with other medical groups involved in child health advocacy such as the American Academy of Pediatrics. Simultaneously, we also hope to link with community organizations who are already working diligently on this effort, such as The Children’s Partnership to provide a more unified voice in support of universal children’s health coverage. Their knowledge and experience in the policy realm will be instrumental toward creating policy change.
Objectives (2-3 paragraphs)
- Conduct a needs assessment of children’s hospitals to determine how best to use our resources in the upcoming year, and create a central information sharing and gathering site
- Create a list of children’s hospitals and contact each hospital for their support in this project
- Establish a collaboration with other child advocacy organizations such as 100% campaign, Children Now, and The Children’s Partnership
- Focus on the 2008 Presidential election with educational forums addressing the candidates’ positions on health care, holding a panel discussion of experts in child advocacy in conjunction with other Bay Area children’s hospitals to discuss the candidates’ platforms on child advocacy issues
- Participate in legislative action regarding universal children’s health coverage such as letter writing campaigns, phone calls, meeting with legislators
Outcomes:
- At least 50 children’s hospitals representing all regions of the country will participate in this coalition
- Pediatricians and children’s hospitals will take an active part in health policy change through at least 10 legislative activities in the upcoming year
- The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital community will have an opportunity to be informed regarding the issues of children and children’s health in the upcoming 2008 Presidential election
- Child advocacy organizations will have a resource and voice from the medical community
- Health policymakers will have a resource from the medical community to advocate for universal children’s health coverage
Evaluation (2-3 paragraphs)
Through this process we will undergo constant evaluation and reflection regarding our project goals. We are already in the stages of evaluating political activism among children’s hospitals using the “Stand Up for SCHIP” event model, and will continue to evaluate the new project ideas through surveys and focus groups. We will also survey the coalition members midway through the year to evaluate the success of the coalition (useful resources, methods of communication, opinions regarding universal health coverage for children). We will disseminate our information through a central website, along with letters to legislators and use the excellent resource of our government and media relations department at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
