Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut
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Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut is an independent, nonprofit organization[1] with offices in Meriden, Connecticut.[2] The foundation supports the mission of its parent organization, CHART (Connecticut Health Advancement and Research Trust). The foundation has assets of nearly $50 million.[3]
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[edit] Purpose
The foundation has several ideas for universal health care that it believes can be enacted and be affordable for government, consumers and businesses. The organization insists on certain benchmarks: universality, affordability for families and individuals, high quality care, and the ability to continue health care coverage through changing circumstances.[4] The foundation says it believes health care is a fundamental right.[5]
[edit] History
In 1997, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Comptroller Nancy Wyman and a coalition of advocacy and labor organizations sued the for-profit Anthem Insurance Co. over its merger with the non-profit Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Connecticut. The aim was to recover tax benefits and other concessions that the former Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Connecticut had received over several decades. The lawsuit was dropped after Anthem Insurance agreed to a settlement in 1999. As a result, the state established the Connecticut Health Advancement and Research Trust. Anthem Foundation of Connecticut was incorporated as a supporting organization to CHART.[6]
It is one of about 165 foundations nationwide to be created by conversions of nonprofit health corporations to for-profit entities. As a condition of these conversions, the law requires that the assets of the nonprofit be retained for some public purpose.[7]
At the time, Attorney General Blumenthal called the agreement "a historic victory". The foundation received $41 million to carry out the conditions of the settlement. It was charged with working toward system-wide health care reform.[8] The agreement established Anthem Foundation's legal obligation to help improve health care for those who need it most.[9] The foundation was incorporated in 2000. It opened its first offices in New Haven, Connecticut. In January 2003, Juan A. Figueroa, a former community organizer, former Connecticut legislator, former assistant attorney general of Connecticut and former president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York,[10] became foundation president. In 2004, the foundation changed its name to reflect a final separation from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut. At the time, Figueroa stated that no relationship with Anthem existed and that the foundation's main focus was passage of universal health care.[11]
Since 2004, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in grants to organizations to advance that goal.[12]
In 2007, the Hartford Business Journal chose Juan Figueroa as a 2007 "Health Care Hero".[13]
[edit] References
- ^ Waterbury Republican American, "Black business group receives $40,000 grant", May 10, 2005
- ^ http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organization.asp?tn=78249
- ^ The American Prospect, "Why Not Connecticut", April 21, 2008
- ^ Meriden-Record Journal, "Universal Health Care Ideas Still In Formative Stages", Dec.14, 2006
- ^ New London Day, "Chamber to Use Grant to Conduct Health-Care Survey", November 1, 2006
- ^ http:/www.consumersunion.org/conv/pub/state/ct/
- ^ The American Prospect, "Why Not Connecticut", April 21, 2008
- ^ "Wyman, Blumenthal Announce $41 Million Settlement of Lawsuits Against Anthem Insurance Co. Inc." Press Release, Attorney General’s Office, July 27, 1999
- ^ http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?A=1774&Q=282846
- ^ New York Times, "Public Lives; Memories of Paradise (Plus a Few Bombs)", May 9, 2000
- ^ New Haven Register, "New Haven, Conn.-based foundation splits from Anthem with Name Change", July 28, 2004
- ^ http://www.universalhealthct.org/get-grants-grants.htm
- ^ Hartford Business Journal, "Health Care Heroes 2007" December 10, 2007
