Growing the Toolbox: Diverse Strategies for Public Interest Lawyers in Campaigns to Expand Access to Health Care for Low-Income People


 

Publication Date: July 2009

Publisher: Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law; Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy

Author(s): John Bouman

Research Area: Government; Health; Social conditions

Keywords: Advocacy Campaigns; Health; Health Care

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Successful advocacy campaigns for access to health care require lawyers to surpass traditional drafting, technical knowledge, and litigation tools. Influencing policymakers at the executive and legislative branches of government, not just the judiciary, calls for multiple and multiforum strategies as well as a variety of skills and capacities. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law demonstrated this multipronged approach by collaborating with community organizations during the FamilyCare campaign, with the media and key political figures during Memisovski v. Maram, and with national organizations in the Bell v. Leavitt case.