KEY WASHINGTON HEALTH FOUNDATION STRATEGIC INITIATIVES:
HEALTH 3.0: TRANSFORMING HEALTH CARE
Throughout its history, WHF has believed that problems with the American and Washington state health care system required major reform solutions. In its early years, much of the Foundation’s attention and resources were aimed at helping people, providers and organizations navigate through shorter term responses to these problems and issues. WHF still looked for opportunities to to also address these through more significant and fundamental reform.
As the years passed, it became clear that these shorter term efforts, even when successful, would not alter the paradigm of a health system needing major reform. If anything, the overall problems of the system were becoming worse. The Foundation began to explore how it might build a bigger footprint toward major change, and many of its key strategic initiatives were borne from this bigger reform imperative, including the Rural Initiative, the Quality Initiative, and the Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign.
Its most direct strategic push for reform came through its Transforming Health Care Initiative, begun in 2001. Over the course of several years, WHF crafted and implemented a strategy to bring about major health care reform in Washington State, dubbing it the quest for “Health 3.0” and also linked these to national health change efforts. This Transforming Health Care Initiative was the forerunner of the Foundation’s innovative Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign.
The Transforming Health Care program was built around several key assumptions. One was that fundamental reform was necessary. Another was that this should be found by building a consensus, especially among the people of the state, in a way that could stand outside of the ideologic divide among the two major political parties. The Foundation believed that such a consensus could be found if it sought to find areas of agreement among the populace, especially around values. It thought leadership was a necessity, not just among political influentials but natural community leaders.
Much of the Foundation’s work was listening to people and their views, and helping others hear these views. Among the key programs found in our Major Project and Activity listing are the Washington Community Roundtables, a series of public opinion polls, key focus groups, and a Washington Health Leadership Summit. The Foundation also provided support to various groups to produce specific policy proposals, and assertively reached out to both sides of the ideologic divide in obtaining these proposals.
The statewide polling showed that there was a great desire for agreement toward solving health problems by Washingtonians, and that they were frustrated by leaders not doing so. It also revealed a consensus view of what was wrong- cost was the problem, access the concern, and quality was generally viewed as a strength. The polling also made key discoveries regarding solutions.
The results of the polling and a structured local conversation process was rolled out in January of 2003. The effort was kicked off with a televised town hall on health care issues, inviting Washingtonians to attend one of the community roundtables in their county. WHF held at least one in every county across the state, and worked with local organizations to host and build attendance. WHF ran each roundtable with a common structured agenda that focused the conversation on solutions, and especially underlying values.
A major outcome from the Community Roundtables was a Values Map. While there were some difference in these from one county to the next, there were an overall set of these values for Washington state as a whole. These values, and many of the local participants, were brought to a 2003 Statewide Leadership Summit hosted by WHF. Over 400 people attended, and the day long discussion around how to approach health reform ended with an electronic voting to prioritize the values. At the end of the Summit, the prioritized list was inserted into a Leadership Resolution drafted by WHF leadership, and over 170 leaders signed on to this statement committing to change. First to sign was Governor Gary Locke, followed by virtually all candidates, from both parties, looking to succeed him as Governor the next year.
The Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign grew from this commitment over the course of 2004 and 2005.
The Foundation also developed various policy agendas and advocated in Olympia and in Washington D.C. as part of the Transforming Health Care program. Most of the functions of the program were eventually rolled into the Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign, including advocacy efforts that had begun under the THC program. One example was WHF’s active push for the Affordable Care Act to include the substantive reforms necessary to make this legislation a force for broad health change, not just access protections.