Fishing Partnership Health Plan

An historic debate on national healthcare reform is now underway in the USA. Never has the need been greater for fishing families in every state to let their representatives and senators in Congress know about their health care needs.

The Fishing Partnership Health Plan model in Massachusetts demonstrates the importance of building a network of fishing associations and of generating political support at the grassroots level. The FPHP has skillfully used its network and grassroots supporters to inform and to energize members of the fishing community, to promote enrollment in the Plan, and to provide health- and safety-related services to fishermen and their families. Indeed, its unique organizing and outreach efforts have been a major factor in the success of the Plan since its beginning in 1997.

As Congress moves forward with legislation to expand healthcare coverage to most Americans, fishing communities in other states should consider emulating the time-tested ways of the FPHP, and especially those FPHP programs focused on outreach and enrollment.

Most fishermen are small business persons who operate their own boats, or they are crew members. By nature, they’re independent-minded, self-sufficient, and hard-working. Also they've learned to be skeptical. On top of that, fishing crew members move frequently from boat to boat, port to port, employer to employer. They can be hard to reach, and hard to convince. Under a new, reformed, national system of health care, effective outreach will be essential to providing access to care for hard-to-insure groups like fishermen.

If the FPHP is a guide, enrolling ranchers, farmers, agriculture workers and similar groups in rural areas, for example, will prove challenging. For success on the access/enrollment front, lawmakers and policymakers will have to allocate substantial resources just for outreach. Studies published by the Urban Institute and American Academy of Pediatrics show strong evidence in support of this cost effective approach to enrolling difficult to reach populations. The FPHP met with the White House and members of Congress to educate them on the FPHP experience and the importance of community-based outreach in our model program. Click here to view our proposal to Congress. The health care reform bill passed by the United States Senate on December 24, 2009 includes language that is consistent with our outreach and education proposal.

Why Last Year’s Legislative Progress Still Matters

There is no guarantee that national health care reform will become law any time soon. If general reform becomes stalled and some kind of limited demonstration program is deemed more feasible, fishermen are well positioned to step forward with a program ready to roll out. Fishermen could then revive advocacy for passage of the fishermen’s health care legislation that Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Barney Frank pioneered in the 110th Congress.

Consider that a bipartisan coalition led by Senator Kennedy and Representative Frank introduced companion bills in the Senate and House during the 110th Congress last year that would have made high-quality, affordable health coverage available to every fishing family in the nation. The obvious inspiration for those proposals was the Fishing Partnership Health Plan in Massachusetts. The Kennedy-Frank legislation is fully developed and has gathered the support of thousands of fishermen, scores of commercial fishing associations across the nation, and 42 co-sponsors in the House and Senate of the 110th Congress. You may read the full text of the fishermen’s healthcare legislation introduced in the 110th Congress, H.R. 5404 and S.2630, ‘‘Commercial Fishing Industry Health Care Coverage Act of 2008.” Click here for a summary of last year’s legislation.

Click here for a list of the House co-sponsors of H.R.5404 in the 110th Congress.

Click here for a list of the Senate co-sponsors of S.2630 in the 110th Congress.

What You Can Do to Help this Year

Tell your representatives and senators in Congress: “Healthcare coverage for fishing families is the #1 need shared by every fishing family in the entire nation. Don’t forget to provide targeted resources for outreach and education for fishermen so fishing families will get the quality coverage they deserve.” For more information on how you or your organization can help promote the goal of high-quality healthcare coverage for all fishing families, please contact us:

Fishing Partnership Health Plan
1383 Washington Street
Newton, MA 02465
Telephone: (617) 928-3443
Toll Free: (866) 661-FPHP
Fax: (617) 928-3445

If we work together, fishermen from around the U.S. will have the same access to high quality, affordable health care coverage that thousands of Massachusetts fishermen and their family members have enjoyed since 1997. .