The priority areas for CPAC's 14th grant cycle for 2008-09 include:
• Using new information technology to improve health services
• Broadening cross-border health programs with Mexico
• Expanding safety-net health programs
• Developing a more diverse health care work force
• Promoting corporate responsibility by health plans, payers and other private sector entities
• Improving consumer engagement in the health care decision-making
• Exploring health initiatives at local levels of government
For the past 11 years, CPAC has worked to make health care accessible for all Californians, paying special attention to the state's working poor, immigrant workers and their families, and low-income households in agricultural and rural areas.
"We offer modest size grants," said CPAC Director Gil Ojeda, "nonetheless, our track record shows that the modest projects we fund have the potential to address ‘big ideas' on the road to health care reform."
Interested parties need to submit a letter of intent by Nov. 4.
CPAC's grant announcement comes at a time when a growing number of low-income and middle-class working families with medical insurance are struggling to pay for medical care. According to a September study by the nonpartisan Center for Studying Health System Change, 57 million Americans live in families struggling with medical bills, even though 42.5 million of those individuals have either public or private health care coverage.
"If even middle-class families with health insurance are having a hard time coping with medical bills, then you can just imagine how much greater the financial strain must be for low-income or uninsured families to pay for medical care," said Ojeda. "Given the pervasive economic crisis in our state and our nation, researching ways to keep health care affordable and accessible is more urgent than ever."
Since 1998, CPAC has awarded more than $4 million in over 100 grants to academic and nonprofit public policy researchers located exclusively in California. CPAC's achievements range from revitalizing Healthy Families, a state's children's low-cost insurance program, to laying the groundwork for a state prescription drug discount plan.
CPAC funds research grants, concept papers, dissertation grants and postdoctoral fellowships. Grant awards range from $5,000 to $65,000. Research results are disseminated through written reports and public briefings held in Sacramento.
The California Program on Access to Care is an applied policy research program administered by UC Berkeley School of Public Health in coordination with the University of California Office of the President. CPAC's activities provide independent research and analysis to state decision makers, including legislators and government agency leaders.
For more information about CPAC's 2008-09 grant offerings visit: http://cpac.berkeley.edu