From the time I began volunteering as a 15-year-old at the hospital in my town through my career as a health care manager, policy analyst and elected official, improving our health care system has been a personal and professional goal of mine.
Toward this goal, tomorrow (Tuesday) I will be convening the Healthy RI Implementation Task Force, a group of health-care stakeholders I’ve brought together to address making the national health care reform law work here in Rhode Island.
Regardless of whether you supported the health care reform bill, it is now federal law in the United States. It’s now our job to get it right—and a lot of getting it right will happen at the local level. The health reform law creates enormous opportunities for the uninsured, and it opens the door to potential cost savings and interesting reforms to our health-care delivery system.
But we have to be ready to take advantage of these opportunities available to Rhode Island, as well as anticipate and address any challenges that will face our state as this law takes effect. There are potential pitfalls if the law is not implemented well. That’s where the Healthy RI task force comes in.
Via the task force, I’ll be gaining input from patient advocates, doctors, nurses and hospitals, insurers, legislators and other policy makers. Everyone will have their voices heard and represented.
At the meeting on Tuesday, stakeholders will be asked to serve on one of several issue-focused work groups to begin the task of identifying opportunities for Rhode Island and preparing proposals for statewide implementation.
The work groups include: insurance market reform and coverage expansion; a health insurance exchange for more Rhode Islanders to get affordable health insurance; payment and delivery system reforms; and accessing federal funding for reforms. The task force will issue a report on implementation proposals in the fall.
Health care reform executed successfully is important to all of us in Rhode Island. I look forward to working together to make successful reform a reality in our state.