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If you do not have Acrobat Reader for accessing these on-line documents, you can download it for free by clicking below:
Building on our Fall, 2007, survey of public opinion in Rhode Island (see below), this report analyzes the factors that may be converging to "open a window" for significant health policy change in the Ocean State. A series of recommendations are also made concerning the process and content of health reform in Rhode Island in view of these political factors and the information that has been gathered about voters' attitudes. FORTHCOMING.
In the fall of 2007, a collaboration between CBRI and Ocean State Action, a grassroots advocacy organization in Rhode Island, was undertaken focusing on the issue of health care. Our research project was a survey of public opinion among Rhode Islanders that examined such issues as gaps in health insurance coverage, the priority of health reform as a state policy concern, and attitudes toward different policy options for reforming the health care system. The survey, which was designed by students enrolled in the Community-Based Research Practicum and carried out through Brown University's Public Opinion Research Center, had a sample size of 410 registered voters, giving it a margin of error of plus or minus 5 points. Results have been disseminated broadly via local media and presentations to state officials and health care industry stakeholders.Support for the project was received from Northeastern University's Provost's office, Arts & Science's Dean's office, and the Corporation for National Community Service grant, "National Community-Based Research Networking Initiative," administered by Princeton University's Community-Based Learning Initiative in partnership with the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation.
In spring of 2006, a CBRI project was undertaken in partnership with the advocacy group Health Care For All in the exciting atmosphere surrounding Massachusetts’ adoption of landmark universal health insurance legislation. Our research centered on the trend toward increased cost sharing in employment-based health insurance. Through evidence compiled from published and unpublished documentary sources, as well as dozens of interviews with public officials, health industry stakeholders, and local consumers, our team called attention to the growing problem of “underinsurance” in Massachusetts and nationally with this report.
The
third CBRI project, completed in May of 2004 and undertaken in collaboration
with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, examined the current
status of public libraries in Massachusetts. The purpose was, first, to
describe the nature and extent of budgetary cuts taking place in the library
system, and, second, to assess their impact on services, activities, and
capabilities at local libraries around the state. Recommendations are made
for safeguarding public libraries in this time of fiscal scarcity.
CBRI
is pleased to present Renewing the Massachussets Bottle Bill: Constant
Goals, Changing Times. The study is an independent policy analysis
that was undertaken as a public educational endeavor in cooperation with
the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG).After tracing the history of the Massachusetts battle bill statute, first adopted in
1982, our report examines the evolution and implementation of the program. Eleven recommendations are made to strengthen the program legislatively and administratively.
The
first CBRI project, carried out in the spring of 2002, consisted of an
analysis of the coverage of mental health topics and policy issues in
the Boston Globe and Boston Herald. The study was developed
in partnership with the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, an
independent group devoted to education and advocacy for improved mental
health care in the Commonwealth. Trends in the number and types of articles
published over the period from 1994 to 2002 (April) were examined. A series
of brief case studies were also included to profile the reporting for
a number of special issues, such as mental health and the state budget,
children's mental health problems, and homelessness and mental illness.
The report ends by identifying several steps that could improve newspaper coverage of mental health topics in Masachusetts.