Informing, engaging, and educating Maine people about health care reform through multi agency collaboration

This presentation will focus on the materials, tools and messaging developed by 11 Maine nonprofits who were awarded Maine Health Access Foundation (MeHAF) grants in 2010 and 2011 to support direct and effective outreach about how federal health care reform will impact people in Maine. In addition to providing facts about the law, the organizations share information with their constituents about opportunities the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides to public and private health insurance programs and ways people can take advantage of new benefits. The organizations have worked together to identify appropriate messages and outreach strategies. MeHAF has provided professional consulting assistance to help the organizations plan and implement a coordinated outreach process to educate Maine's young adults, seniors, low-income, immigrants, and providers. The grantee group used diverse outreach methods and targeted populations that might benefit from provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Fact sheets, posters, brochures, videos and webinars have been created and disseminated by the group in an effort to educate Mainers about coverage options and new protections under the law. A place- based strategy was also implemented in Bangor, Maine. The Maine People's Alliance canvassed all households in Bangor, followed by an evaluation and full report on the effectiveness of this strategy. This will be an interactive discussion that will include participant's evaluation of the materials with an opportunity to incorporate participant suggestions into outreach efforts moving forward.