Since 2000, Missouri Foundation for Health has been an active force in the state of Missouri building a more equitable future through collaboration, convening, knowledge sharing, and strategic investment. Empower Missouri is a longstanding partner of MFH, actually playing a critical role in the creation of the Foundation during the 1990s. Empower (then MASW) built a 60-organization coalition to oppose Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri from abusing its non-profit status by attempting to convert 80% of its business to a for-profit venture. MASW and our coalition persuaded state regulatory officials to reverse previous decisions and enforce the law, resulting in a protracted legal battle. Eventually, the Missouri Foundation for Health was created as a key settlement provision of the lawsuits, endowed with over $300M in assets from BCBSMO and meeting a critical need in the state to advance the healthcare of Missouri’s uninsured and underinsured.
In more recent years, Empower Missouri was a proud participant in MFH’s Exemplary Advocate Cohort that brought together a select group of nonprofits to lead discussions and mobilize on health-related advocacy in the state of Missouri (Sarah Owsley wrote a fantastic article last year on her experience within the cohort which you can read here). They have also been a generous funder of our work, particularly our HIV Justice campaign, our food security coalition, our Advocacy Accelerator, and our tenant organizing. We are proud to highlight MFH as an organization that works tirelessly to assure the voices of Missourians are heard and accounted for when it comes to making sure health care is both fair and accessible for all. You can read more directly from MFH in their Partner Spotlight below:
We at Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) have great respect for Empower Missouri as one of Missouri’s longest standing advocacy agencies. To better understand just what 125 years means, we reflected on their first year of 1901 and some of the many things that they predate. In 1901:
MFH has had a connection with Empower Missouri for 24 years – almost since our own inception – and in that time have been honored to have partnered with them to make our state a stronger, healthier place. Working on issues such as food justice, health care access, and tenants’ rights, EM continues to serve as the connective tissue uniting partners on common issues. We also have been proud to play a role in their forward-thinking work to build power structures and seed capacity for the future generation of Missouri leaders through their Advocacy Accelerator. Empower Missouri’s focus of “people powered policy change” is more than a slogan; it is fundamental to who they are and the change they want to inspire.
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