Mark Warner - U.S. Senate

Almost 10 years before he was elected governor, Mark Warner established an innovative public-private partnership to increase medical access for low- and moderate-income Virginians. Combining the entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector with resources obtained from the public sector, the Virginia Health Care Foundation has earned a reputation as a champion for the Commonwealth’s medically, underserved citizens. The Foundation has leveraged its grant-making ability to promote greater use of technology in health care, rural access, and new programs for older Virginians.

As Governor, Mark Warner brought this same commitment and innovative spirit to the Commonwealth’s wide-ranging programs in health and human services.

FAMIS: A Spectacular Turnaround for Children’s Health

Providing young children with health insurance is crucial to providing preventive and emergency medical care without incurring excessive costs that ultimately are passed on to taxpayers.

Prior to 2002, Virginia had an abysmal program for children’s health insurance. By many accounts, Virginia’s program, FAMIS, the Family Access to Medical Insurance Service, was one of the worst in the nation. Poor management, excessive regulations, and non-existent public outreach had caused the program to have low enrollment rates.

In fact, Governor Warner’s predecessor said the FAMIS program was “an affront to his philosophy” that “promoted dependency.” As a result, Virginia forfeited tens of millions of unspent health care dollars to the federal government.

Mark Warner pledged to turn the children’s health insurance program around, and he kept his promise. Once in office, he worked closely with the General Assembly on legislation that broke down the barriers to FAMIS enrollment. He dramatically increased public outreach, and he traveled to clinics and community centers around the state to encourage more working families to enroll in the program. Over his term, almost 138,000 additional children were covered by health insurance through FAMIS. Ninety-eight percent of all estimated eligible children were enrolled in the program.

These remarkable results attracted nationwide attention. A survey conducted by the Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured singled out Virginia for making a “marked positive effect on children’s enrollment’’ in health insurance. The chairman of the Commission called Virginia “one of the states that has really had some extraordinary achievement.” The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation also saluted Virginia’s turnaround of the program.

The state made progress in other areas as well. The FAMIS MOMS program expanded health care coverage for uninsured pregnant women and increased Medicaid reimbursement for prenatal and obstetrical care. Other improvements to FAMIS helped low- and moderate-income families obtain dental care for their children.

With a smart, targeted outreach effort, immunization rates for two-year old children increased from 71 percent to 81 percent over the four years of the Warner administration.

Improving access to health care is not, of course, a challenge limited solely to children. The Warner administration launched other vital initiatives in this area as well, and created new and innovative ways to extend health care services.

Pharmacy Connect, a software program created by the Virginia Health Care Foundation and supported by the Commonwealth, facilitated access to free medications for eligible uninsured Virginians. The program helped lower-income Virginians in the far Southwest part of the state obtain more than $6 million in needed prescription medications.

The Right Start for Children

The years from birth to age five present an extraordinary opportunity to build a strong foundation of intellectual, social, physical, and emotional growth and development for children. Approximately 500,000 children younger than age five live in Virginia.

Guided by the vision that every child should enter kindergarten healthy and ready to succeed, the Governor’s Early Learning Council developed recommendations to enhance opportunities for early childhood learning, including the creation of a public-private partnership to enhance public awareness of early childhood services. In his final budget, Governor Warner proposed the establishment of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation to help communities and public and private organizations build and improve early childhood programs

During the Warner administration, Virginia also developed the “New Parent Tool Kit.” In 2006, a total of approximately 110,000 kits – in both English and Spanish – were distributed to new parents all across Virginia, providing new mothers and fathers with clear, easy-to-understand information on a wide range of parenting issues, including health care, infant safety, and a guide to additional parenting resources.

Reforms Achieved in Mental Health

In 2003, Governor Warner announced a series of reforms in the Commonwealth’s approach to the treatment of mental health and mental retardation. The Governor’s proposal redirected millions of dollars annually from state mental health institutions to community service boards. The goal of this transfer was to offer more patients care at home and in the community – not in large institutions.

The Governor’s reforms included funds to replace two outdated state hospitals and two aging state training centers with smaller, state-of-the-art treatment facilities. At the same time, he proposed $116 million in new funding for community-based care for behavioral health services. By the end of his term, Governor Warner;s reforms served an 10,000 people in the community.

Creating More Healthy Virginians

To address the growing incidence of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other preventable diseases, Governor Warner launched the Healthy Virginians initiative in 2004. Healthy Virginians was a comprehensive program aimed at encouraging healthier lifestyles among state employees, promoting exercise and proper nutrition among Virginia’s school children, and improving the health care of Virginia’s Medicaid population.

Healthy Virginians used a number of measures to achieve these goals, including: a new emphasis on walking for all targeted groups, a statewide Disease Management Program for Medicaid beneficiaries suffering from coronary disease, and an increased emphasis on healthy cafeteria options and physical education for school children.