State Planning Grant for the Uninsured
2005
In September 2005, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) received a $266,218 state planning grant aimed at improving the availability and quality of health insurance coverage for all Montanans.
The grant was awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It was a continuation of a grant the state received in 2002, which was used to collect and analyze data about the characteristics of Montana’s uninsured population.
Montana continues to have one of the higher rates in the nation of residents who have no health insurance (19 percent). Prior to getting the first state planning grant, Montana relied on extrapolating data from national and private sources to describe its uninsured population.
The purposes of the continuation grant were to: (1) analyze the impact of initiatives of the 2005 Legislature to expand health coverage for the uninsured; (2) develop sustainable methods to gather information about health insurance for the population and information related to employer-based health insurance, and (3) create a “home” for continuing health policy development that addresses providing health-care coverage to all Montanans.
Throughout 2006, a 24-member steering committee made up of private and public sector representatives met with staff from DPHHS, the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, and the State Auditor’s Office. As a result of its work, the steering committee is proposing a series of specific short- and long-term actions that will lead to accessibility of affordable high-quality health-care coverage for all Montanans by the year 2012.
Specifically, the products of this grant helped Montana define long-term ways to: (1) continue to refine and create a sustainable source of data on the insurance status of Montanans, including employer-based insurance; (2) analyze the impact of current policies and programs influencing access to health-care coverage; and (3) develop and recommend possible policy options for consideration by the steering committee in the following areas:
- Sustaining the infrastructure to regularly provide data on the uninsured;
- Continuing the weaving of Native Americans into each policy area;
- Expanding coverage to target populations;
- Expanding insurance pooling;
- Promoting cost avoidance through prevention;
- Expanding the safety net;
- Expanding eligibility in public health-care programs; and
- Valuing and building the health-care workforce.
Page last updated 01/08/2007
