Preparing for Health Reform: A Conversation with State Policymakers

There has been much talk about health reform over the last several months, but little attention has been paid to the implications these reforms will have on states. Exploring the key considerations for states in the wake of health reform is essential, as states play a critical role in financing, organizing, and regulating the health care system, and federal reforms are certain to affect all of these roles.

With federal health reform on the horizon, states face new opportunities and challenges to improve the health care delivery system – and ultimately, the health status of their residents.  Leading health policy expert, NASHP Executive Director Alan Weil, discusses the potential impact of health reform on current state activities based on three NASHP issue briefs released in November 2009.

These publications are:

• State Policymakers’ Priorities for Improving the Health Care System – identifies the most challenging and pressing health policy issues that states are currently addressing.
• A State Policymakers’ Guide to Health Reform, Part I: Anticipating How Federal Reform Will Affect State Roles – describes the wide array of tools states have to improve the health care system and examines how federal health reform may affect those tools.
• Supporting State Policymakers’ Implementation of Federal Health Reform –describes the types of support states will need to implement the changes to the health care system contemplated in federal health reform legislation.