Advocating for Consumer Coverage Rights

By December 2007, a vibrant discussion of how to make health care affordable and accessible was underway in New York State and at the federal level.

While health care consumers were a fundamental constituency in this discussion, their perspectives on the issues were not represented in the same manner as other key stakeholders. Consumers did not have well-financed associations to coalesce their views and bring them to the public and policymakers. In 2008, NYHealth awarded American Cancer Society (ACS), as a part of Health Care for All New York (HCFANY), a grant to leverage support from other funders to educate and empower consumers in the public discussion about how best to make health care affordable and accessible to all New Yorkers.