A note from Tiffany Donelson
I’m writing to let you know about some modest changes we are making to our 2024 to 2028 strategic plan. This grew out of a midpoint review we undertook to assess how our strategic plan was progressing, which included input from many of our partners.
The first thing to know is that we’re staying the course; we are not making major changes to our plan or who we are. We remain fully committed to achieving health equity for people of color, and to maintaining our focus on coverage expansion, sustainable payment for community health workers, maternal health equity, and supporting the advocacy and information infrastructure needed for health equity. The long-term vision for each strategic goal remains the same, as do most of our objectives.
However, the context has changed considerably since we adopted the plan in 2023. As a result, we have revised some of our objectives to reflect the increased challenges to health equity. Our hope is that our partners will recognize these changes as a reflection of the work we’re doing. Most importantly, our goal with these changes is to be responsive to the environment and feedback from those working toward health equity.
We’re not changing where we want to go or how to get there, but we recognize that the road might be rougher and it might take more effort to stay on course.
What we’re changing: Protecting coverage, not just expanding it
The biggest changes are related to our goal of expanding health care coverage. Our vision that everyone in Connecticut should have health care coverage has not changed, but achieving this has gotten harder.
When we started this plan, most people in our state had access to health care coverage, but people who were undocumented and those with incomes just above the limit for Medicaid or Covered Connecticut either had no options or no affordable options; this was our focus in the original plan.
Unfortunately, changes at the federal level – particularly the passage of HR 1, the law also referred to as the “big beautiful bill” – mean that even more people will soon find themselves without options for coverage. Many immigrants with legal status are losing access to health care coverage, and many people who have Medicaid are at risk of losing coverage because of new bureaucratic requirements taking effect in the coming months.
We have shifted our five-year goal from expanding coverage options for people who do not currently have them to include protecting existing coverage and extending coverage options for people who do not currently have them. We still hope more people will gain coverage, but we recognize that even maintaining what we have now will take work.
In addition, we have revised two of our objectives:
- Connecticut maintains existing HUSKY eligibility for children, teens, and pregnant and postpartum people regardless of immigration status, and extends this coverage to more people.
- Minimize the harm to the health care coverage of Connecticut residents from federal and state policies.
New objectives for maternal health equity
Maternal health equity for people of color was a new priority area for the foundation at the start of this strategic plan. When we began the plan, we knew we needed to learn more, and began with the creation of a blueprint. The blueprint for maternal health equity is now complete, and we have created new objectives based on its findings. They are:
- Organizations and state agencies have started working to implement the recommendations of the blueprint.
- Connecticut has adopted a shared definition of severe maternal morbidity that is used in data collection and reporting.
- Connecticut has established a severe maternal morbidity review committee.
We will continue to work toward all our goals using a combination of grantmaking, policy advocacy, leadership development, research, strategic communications, and convening.
We know these are difficult times, and we appreciate your partnership in this critical work. I am confident that even in these harder times, we can collectively find ways to keep our state on a course toward making sure that everyone can live their healthiest lives.
>>> Click here to read our full updated strategic plan
>>> Click here to read a summary of the updated strategic plan
>>> Click here to read a summary of the updated strategic plan in Spanish