Our Health Policy Matters was launched in November 2010 by Paul Gionfriddo, a former state legislator, Mayor, and long-time nonprofit executive.
Paul Gionfriddo is a former six-term state legislator who also served a term as Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut. He began working in the field of health policy in the late 1970s when he was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly. He entered the state legislature on the heels of the mental health deinstitutionalization programs of the 1960s, ten years after Medicare and Medicaid were enacted into law, and just before the Reagan revolution handed significant health policy decision-making authority to the states.
As a state legislator, Paul chaired legislative committees on public health, health care, and hospitals. As he points out during speaking engagements, he was assigned to health policy not because he had training in the area (he majored in philosophy at Wesleyan University), but because no one else wanted to do it!
In his weekly columns, Paul offers a unique and expert perspective on health and mental health policy for local, state, and national audiences. His thought-provoking writing has been featured by organizations around the nation.
He has authored guest blogs for Health Affairs (Grantwatch Blog), and has been a featured guest on NPR's Los Angeles affiliate, on multiple occasions on WATR's Talk of the Town radio show, and on BlogTalkRadio’s Medicaid Matters and New American Dream shows. His views and columns have been cited by Mental Health America, Grantmakers in Health, Health Affairs, Health News Florida, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Florida Public Health Association, and numerous state, county, and local public health, mental health, and health care advocacy groups in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and elsewhere. Versions of, and/or links to, his columns have also begun to appear in a rapidly growing number of online publications, including Health News Florida, Yourpbc.org, Palm Beach Live Work Play, Your Good Mental Health, FHIcommunications via FHIweekly, CT News Junkie, and elsewhere. He has also been published in the print editions of Health Affairs and the Washington Post, and an Op Edit he wrote in late 2012 for the Hartford Courant in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings appeared in a dozen newspapers across the country.
A skilled and engaging presenter, Paul has also shared his health and mental health policy experience and perspectives with a large variety of groups around the country, including Mental Health America, the Florida Association of Public Health Nurses, the Florida Council for community Behavioral Health, the University of Arizona College of Public Health, the North Carolina Hospital Association, the Lieber Institute for Behavioral Health at Johns Hopkins, the Fourth Street Clinic in Salt Lake City, and numerous other locations. He is available for additional public speaking engagements, and can be reached at gionfriddopaul@gmail.com.
He has also been a consultant to many public and private organizations, and is also available for consulting engagements of short-term duration.
Why This Author?He has also been a consultant to many public and private organizations, and is also available for consulting engagements of short-term duration.
Paul Gionfriddo is a former six-term state legislator who also served a term as Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut. He began working in the field of health policy in the late 1970s when he was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly. He entered the state legislature on the heels of the mental health deinstitutionalization programs of the 1960s, ten years after Medicare and Medicaid were enacted into law, and just before the Reagan revolution handed significant health policy decision-making authority to the states.
As a state legislator, Paul chaired legislative committees on public health, health care, and hospitals. As he points out during speaking engagements, he was assigned to health policy not because he had training in the area (he majored in philosophy at Wesleyan University), but because no one else wanted to do it!
He first worked extensively on long term care policy in the 1980s, and was one of the first state elected officials pushing for affordable long term care insurance to help offset the costs borne out of pocket and by Medicaid for nursing home care and home health care for elders.
Too-high infant mortality and low birth weight rates, especially in lower income and minority populations, also attracted his attention, and he made improving maternal and child health a major area of focus when he chaired his health committees.
His home town housed two large state institutions, one of which was a mental health facility. To reduce the size of that institution, he became a leading advocate for community-based mental health services, funding community programs which formed the core of new treatment systems.
Paul was also one of the first state elected officials to work on HIV issues, sponsoring a Connecticut Constitutional Amendment to prohibit discrimination against HIV-positive individuals. He also sponsored an amendment to the Connecticut Constitution prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities, and, ahead of his time, sponsored legislation making prescription drugs more affordable for low-income seniors in Connecticut. He funded community health centers, community mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, public health programs, and a number of other initiatives supporting people with disabilities and chronic conditions.
Too-high infant mortality and low birth weight rates, especially in lower income and minority populations, also attracted his attention, and he made improving maternal and child health a major area of focus when he chaired his health committees.
His home town housed two large state institutions, one of which was a mental health facility. To reduce the size of that institution, he became a leading advocate for community-based mental health services, funding community programs which formed the core of new treatment systems.
Paul was also one of the first state elected officials to work on HIV issues, sponsoring a Connecticut Constitutional Amendment to prohibit discrimination against HIV-positive individuals. He also sponsored an amendment to the Connecticut Constitution prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities, and, ahead of his time, sponsored legislation making prescription drugs more affordable for low-income seniors in Connecticut. He funded community health centers, community mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, public health programs, and a number of other initiatives supporting people with disabilities and chronic conditions.
Paul left the State Legislature in 1990 when he was elected Mayor. After his term as Mayor, he developed a small consulting practice, working with local, state, and national entities on health policy matters. Among his local-level clients were health departments, with whom he worked on the development of local health plans and programs. At the state level his clients included the Connecticut Primary Care Association, the Connecticut Hospital Association, and the Connecticut Public Health Association. He also worked on several projects for the State of Connecticut, and developed state-level training programs for public health officials in the states of Utah, Missouri, and Georgia, among others.
At the national level, he worked extensively with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on health services research dissemination to state and local policy leaders, helping to develop workshops and programs on long term care, prevention and public health, child health, minority health, and urban health, and was a member of the faculty of the Applied Statistics Training Institute of the National Center for Health Statistics. He also worked on health policy projects with the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health, the National Governors Association, and National Conference of State Legislatures.
During the 1990s, he was a member of the adjunct faculties of both Wesleyan University and Trinity College, where he taught graduate-level courses on health care and public health policy.
At the national level, he worked extensively with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on health services research dissemination to state and local policy leaders, helping to develop workshops and programs on long term care, prevention and public health, child health, minority health, and urban health, and was a member of the faculty of the Applied Statistics Training Institute of the National Center for Health Statistics. He also worked on health policy projects with the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health, the National Governors Association, and National Conference of State Legislatures.
During the 1990s, he was a member of the adjunct faculties of both Wesleyan University and Trinity College, where he taught graduate-level courses on health care and public health policy.
In 1995, Paul became Executive Director of the Connecticut Association for Human Services, a nonprofit health, education, and human services advocacy organization. While at CAHS, he served as Co-Chair of the Grantee Steering Committee of the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count project, and was an adjunct member of the Board of Directors of Voices for America's Children. He moved to Austin, Texas, in 2001, and became Executive Director of the Integrated Care Collaboration (ICC), an innovative program to improve care coordination among safety net health and mental health providers through the use of shared electronic health records and common eligibility programs in the three central Texas counties. While at the ICC, he worked closely with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and Ascension Health, and served on the Board of Directors of Texans Care for Children, a statewide child advocacy organization.
Paul joined the Palm Beach County Community Health Alliance as its Executive Director in 2005, then became President of the Quantum Foundation in 2007. He left the foundation in 2010 to pursue consulting, writing, and speaking opportunities. Since then, he has contributed frequently to Health Affairs online, and his essay entitled "How I Helped to Create a Flawed Mental Health System That's Failed Millions - and My Son," published as the September, 2012, Health Affairs "narrative matters" essay, was the most widely-read journal article that month, and continued to be one of the most widely read articles for the next six months. In Palm Beach County, he continues to serve as a Board officer of the Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health, a safety net community mental health services provider.
Why This Blog?
Paul joined the Palm Beach County Community Health Alliance as its Executive Director in 2005, then became President of the Quantum Foundation in 2007. He left the foundation in 2010 to pursue consulting, writing, and speaking opportunities. Since then, he has contributed frequently to Health Affairs online, and his essay entitled "How I Helped to Create a Flawed Mental Health System That's Failed Millions - and My Son," published as the September, 2012, Health Affairs "narrative matters" essay, was the most widely-read journal article that month, and continued to be one of the most widely read articles for the next six months. In Palm Beach County, he continues to serve as a Board officer of the Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health, a safety net community mental health services provider.
Why This Blog?
Paul believes that the general public does not always receive clear, accessible, and accurate information about health policy issues. In early 2010 he wrote a series of papers explaining the impact of national health policy reform on average citizens. This resulted in a number of invitations to talk about health reform and its impact on mental health, long term care, and public health policy, and audience feedback that underscored the need for good information about health policy.
This blog is the result of that feedback.
Over more than thirty years, Paul has been in a unique position to play a hands-on role in the development and implementation of health policy and to experience its local impact on a day-to-day basis. During this time, health care spending has doubled as a percentage of GDP, and it has become and will continue to be one of the most challenging expenses of government, the private sector, and individuals and families.
As a result, our health policy matters to us all. Paul believes that it will continue to evolve, and he can find favor (and disfavor) in most approaches to health policy-making. His guiding philosophy is that public systems need fiscal discipline and private systems require rules and regulations to meet the health needs of the people of our country.
Email Paul at: gionfriddopaul@gmail.com.
This blog is the result of that feedback.
Over more than thirty years, Paul has been in a unique position to play a hands-on role in the development and implementation of health policy and to experience its local impact on a day-to-day basis. During this time, health care spending has doubled as a percentage of GDP, and it has become and will continue to be one of the most challenging expenses of government, the private sector, and individuals and families.
As a result, our health policy matters to us all. Paul believes that it will continue to evolve, and he can find favor (and disfavor) in most approaches to health policy-making. His guiding philosophy is that public systems need fiscal discipline and private systems require rules and regulations to meet the health needs of the people of our country.
Email Paul at: gionfriddopaul@gmail.com.
