Goal: Win state-by-state universal health care campaigns

Leadership

Organization’s Objective

Staggering growth in the cost of health care has made quality health coverage unaffordable for millions of American families and businesses. Spiraling health costs are jeopardizing the hope of many Americans for a middle-class living standard and undermining the security of millions more whose coverage is at risk. As the number of uninsured Americans swells at pace of nearly 5,000 each day, the cost of health care for the uninsured and underinsured is shifted to those who retain health coverage through increases in insurance premiums rising 3 to 5 times faster than wages.. This staggering growth of health care costs is reducing the competitiveness of American business in the global economy -- and that is costing jobs for American workers.

It nearly 60 years since President Harry S. Truman called on Congress to enact national care reform, efforts of both Republican and Democratic administrations have failed to achieve the objective. The problem has not been one of political will, alone. There are structural reasons why the basic health care reform America needs has been repeatedly defeated when initiated at the federal level. There is reason to expect that states, instead, will pioneer the breakthrough health care financing and delivery system reforms Americans need, just as states have done in the case of other progressive social reforms.

We believe the fastest route to the federal health care reform America needs leads through state capitols by winning comprehensive reform legislation state-by-state, building political momentum for a national solution to America’s health cost crisis. Yet, until now, there has been no coordinated national effort to win comprehensive health care reform campaigns state-by-state.