The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation -- America's largest philanthropic entity devoted to health care issues -- is partnering with a diverse collection of eight other groups to hold a series of conferences around the nation that will focus on how to provide health insurance to the estimated 44 million citizens without such coverage.
The day-long conferences will be held -- beginning in November and going through January -- in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Memphis, New York City, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Tampa (not necessarily in that order).
The conferences are planned as forums "which the public, elected officials (including mayors, governors and members of Congress), and regional health, business and labor leaders can explore proposed solutions for reducing the number of people who lack health insurance," the foundation reports.
Apart from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sponsoring organizations are:
the American Hospital Association;
the American Medical Association;
the American Nurses Association;
the Catholic Health Association of the United States;
Families USA;
the Health Insurance Association of America;
the Service Employees International Union;
and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The foundation reports that an estimated 44 million Americans now lack health coverage, and that number is growing by 1 million people a year. Conference organizers hope that including such a wide range of organizations might lead to consensus on an action plan.
This series builds on the "Health Coverage 2000: Meeting the Challenge of the Uninsured" conference held last January.
Full text of the article is currently found at:
http://www.rwjf.org/media/fr08-22-00.htm
