HEALTH CARE FOR ALL

We are fighting to take back control of our health care from corporations and CEOs. Under Improved Medicare for All, health care will be provided to all people at zero cost to patients. Patients will choose the locations and care providers that fit their needs, rather than being forced to choose from a narrow list of "in-network" providers determined by a giant corporation. We will end the epidemic of rural hospital closures. We will invest in preventative medicine and in harm reduction and substance use disorder recovery.

At the same time, we must directly counter the racialized villainization of public health programs like Medicaid, block all attempts to repeal and weaken the Affordable Care Act, and challenge narratives that say any person is undeserving of care. We must realize American Indians' sovereign treaty right to health care.

If we want to win Improved Medicare for All, and any other major reforms of our health care system, we need to build more power for our movement and take power and influence away from the corporate health care industry that currently calls the shots in Washington. This is where Care Over Cost comes in.

In this campaign we are focusing on claims denials — instances where insurance corporations refuse to pay for care that we need. We are doing lots of outreach and follow up to find people who are experiencing claim denials (or other harm from their insurers), bring them into our base, and work with them to appeal their claim denials with their insurers. Then we are running local escalation arcs to raise the public profile of the denied claims, put pressure on the insurance corporation to overturn the denials, and elevate the narrative that private insurance does. not. work.

Learn more at Care Over Cost.

We’re demanding that candidates for public office take the Patients Over Profits Pledge. The Pledge calls on politicians to reject campaign contributions from the executives, lobbyists, and PACs affiliated with the corporate health care industry, including private insurers, pharma corporations, and private hospitals who are organizing to take over our health care system. The pledge is supported by a broad coalition of organizations dedicated to working for health care justice.
See the pledge.

For far too long, the U.S. has made the choice to allow greedy pharmaceutical corporations free rein to charge whatever they want for their life-saving medications, no matter how many people suffer and die as a result. We are fighting back. We are exposing Big Pharma profiteering while highlighting the ways our government can and must act to stop it. For example, Health and Human Services has the power under existing law to break pharmaceutical patent monopolies for the public good, with no action from Congress necessary. Doing so would significantly lower drug prices by introducing competition. We are calling on HHS Secretary Becerra to use that power now.

Additionally, we must make the pharmaceutical industry's abusive price-gouging practices illegal. We must pass legislation that allows the federal government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices with manufacturers. And finally, we need to change policies so that the federal government can manufacture generic prescription drugs or import them from other countries when domestic pharmaceutical corporations fail to set fair prices.

Watch our launch event with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, featuring Erica Sawyer from Iowa CCI, our Iowa affiliate group.