The document provides 5 story ideas for local news coverage on health reform: 1) Stories of medical bankruptcies in the local community. 2) Profiling local residents on how current health costs affect their care and how reform may impact them. 3) Potential cuts to local health budgets and how that could lengthen wait times. 4) Rationing of care for the uninsured and long wait times for certain procedures and medications. 5) Challenges for those between 50-65 in obtaining health insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

1. Bringing Health Reform Home:Stories for your CommunityBarbara FederOstrovDeputy EditorReportingonHealth.org3/13/10

2. Going beyond the local rally story

3. YOUR MANTRA:Health reform is the peg, not the story.

4. The BackdropNext week’s planned vote on health reformStates are moving to ban mandate to purchase insuranceLots of last-minute lobbying, rallies, media coverage

5. Five Story IdeasMedical bankruptcies in your communityWhat is this going to cost me? Rationing care for the uninsuredThe In-Betweens: Before Medicare startsAre local health agencies planning ahead?

6. Medical Bankruptcies “In the campaign to broaden support for the overhaul of American health care, few arguments have packed as much rhetorical punch as the there-but-for-the-grace-of-God notion that average families, through no fault of their own, are going bankrupt because of medical debt.“Kevin Sack, New York Times, “From the Hospitalto Bankruptcy Court,” November 24, 2009

7. What is this going to cost me? Profile people from different walks of life about:Their current health care costs, How those costs affect the care they getHow they might be planning for the changes aheadHow might health reform affect them?

8. Health Budget CutsLonger wait times for primary care at free clinics?Longer waits for specialty care?Wait list for subsidized insurance programs like Healthy Families?

9. Rationing care for the poorLong waits for hernia and gall bladder surgery? What other care is rationed? How do uninsured patients with cancer and other serious diseases get specialized care?How do they get medications? Are HIV/AIDS patients better off than others?

10. The In-Betweens: What to do before Medicare startsHow are people between the ages of 50 and 65 getting health insurance?Many have pre-existing conditionsIndividual insurance market most affected by proposed health reforms

11. Resources for staying informed…

12. Best OverviewsCalifornia Healthline: digest of California health policy/access news Kaiser Family Foundation’s health reform page New York Times Health Reform Topic page

13. Best BlogsHealth Care Policy and Marketplace Review Ezra Klein’s policy blog, Washington Post The Treatment: blog of Jonathan Cohn, the New Republic writer and author of "Sick" New York Times’ Prescriptions blog

14. Best Data SourcesHealthyCity.org: California-only data resource for community activists CHCF.org: data on health care access, insurance ratesCalHealthReform.org: background on California’s failed health reform efforts StateHealthFacts.org: comparisons of health costs, the uninsured, etc.

15. If that seems like a lot to absorb,Be glad you’re not this guy….

17. Questions?