Americans' lack of meaningful access to affordable and stable health care coverage has been a central concern of the Foundation since its inception 35 years ago. 

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, today nearly 46 million Americans, including 9 million children, are uninsured, and the problem is growing. 
• Having a job, even a full-time job, doesn't necessarily guarantee coverage. In fact, eight out of 10 uninsured Americans are in working families.

In light of an evolving environment and promising opportunities, we are working in several areas to accomplish our goal of ensuring that everyone in America has affordable and stable health care coverage.

Increasing Enrollment in Coverage Programs. Ensuring coverage for all children and low-income adults is a first step toward achieving coverage for everyone.

RWJF has helped make both the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and Medicaid easier for families to access and understand through our Covering Kids & Families initiative. An estimated seven out of 10 uninsured children are eligible for these programs, and we will continue efforts to ensure that all eligible individuals are enrolled.

Supporting Private/Public Expansions. Increased coverage can be achieved by promoting expansions of coverage in the public and private sectors. This includes encouraging state and federal expansion efforts and encouraging employers and health plans to expand opportunities for private insurance.

We commissioned the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), located at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, to develop a comprehensive state-by-state analysis on children’s access to health insurance. This analysis underscores that working parents who earn modest incomes are experiencing dramatic erosion in employer benefits; making it ever harder to obtain adequate health services for themselves and their families. Whose Kids are Covered: A State-by-State Look at Uninsured Children 

Maintaining Opinion Leader Support for Expanded Coverage. Because we believe that reaching the goal of affordable and stable health care will require changes in public policy, we will work to build and sustain broad-based support for change. This includes building support among opinion makers, policy-makers, grassroots advocates, the business community and the engaged public.  

Conducting Research and Analysis on Factors that Affect Availability of Affordable, Stable Coverage. We are particularly interested in commissioning, conducting and disseminating innovative research and policy analysis that will reveal the fundamental barriers to achieving affordable and stable health care coverage for all, including the rapidly rising cost of care and the structural features of private health insurance markets. We are now focusing more specifically on states, and are supporting research and evaluation initiatives that will identify the effective coverage strategies that will inform state and federal action.

To receive e-mail notification when RWJF releases new calls for proposals, sign up for RWJF Funding Alert E-mails or add a feed of CFPs to your news reader. (Help: what are news feeds?) 

What We Don't Fund

• We do not fund direct health care services to individuals, or direct subsidies for health insurance.
• We do not accept unsolicited proposals for work related to coverage.

We follow Foundation-wide guidelines for what we don't fund.

Last update: April 2007

U.S. Census Bureau, 2006. “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005.”

• Learn about Our Approach

For more information on the issues RWJF seeks to address, download our complete overview.