In October 2006, Community Catalyst released a 16-state study, Consumer Health Advocacy: A View From 16 States funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which highlighted the critical role that an organized consumer voice plays in protecting or expanding health care access.  The report, which examined the political, economic, and organizational factors that affect the power of consumer health advocacy, highlighted six types of organizational capacities needed by consumer advocacy networks in states to be effective.

These capacities include the ability to:

• Analyze complex legal and policy issues in order to develop achievable policy alternatives that will attract broad support
• Design and implement media and other communications strategies to build timely public and political support for reform and to weaken opposition arguments
• Develop and implement strategic health policy campaigns
• Build a strong grassroots base of support
• Build and sustain strong broad-based coalitions and maintain strategic alliances with other stakeholders
• Generate resources from diverse sources to build organizational infrastructure and maintain core functions and implement campaigns.

The Community Catalyst report notes that all six of these capacities seldom exist within a single organization or a single type of organization and underscores the importance of addressing this challenge by supporting state health reform advocates in building a single, integrated advocacy network within a state.

This is the central purpose of the Consumer Voices for Coverage program.  Given these observations and the report's recommendations, Consumer Voices for Coverage seeks to enhance and strengthen these six capacities in statewide health care reform advocacy networks in the twelve selected states and offers tools, resources, and assistance to strengthen these core capacities.