Getting everyone the health care they need
Since our founding, we have been fighting for access to health care for everyone in our communities.
We believe that a society expresses respect for the life and dignity of all people by ensuring that they can get quality health care when they need it. It is up to government to make this a reality–health care access is too important to be left to the private market, where profit takes precedence over matters of life and death.
Motivated by this belief, we have:
- Helped lead a national campaign for federal health care reform, resulting in the passage of historic legislation in March 2010
- Campaigned for the expansion of public insurance programs, such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program
- Advanced measures to address racial disparities in the health care system
- Promoted meaningful oversight of private health insurance companies
- Fought for the removal of barriers that prevent immigrants from enrolling in public health insurance programs
- Supported Native leaders fighting to hold the U.S. government accountable for its obligations with regard to Native people’s health care
- Persuaded hospitals to implement better policies for free and reduced cost care, and for language interpretation and translation
The historic health reform legislation passed in March 2010 creates a foundation upon which we will build our ongoing fight for health care for all.
Our ongoing work focuses on racial disparities in health, the social determinants of health, and implementation of health care reform in low-income communities and communities of color.
Creating healthy communities
As important as health care is, health is about much more than medical treatment.
The health of a community is determined by interconnected social and economic factors–factors often related to discrimination, structural racism, and broader social and economic inequity.
The conditions that make a healthy life possible are unavailable to many people, especially people of color. These conditions include such things as time and places for exercise, the ability to buy healthy foods, access to quality schools, and stable, safe working conditions. We believe that all people should benefit from the conditions that make a healthy life possible.
We work with grassroots organizations to promote community health and fight for access to nutritious food, parks and green space, and safe workplaces.
Additional resources:
- “How Are Immigrants Included in Health Care Reform?” from the National Immigration Law Center
- Message from IHS Director on the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, 3/24/2010 from the National Indian Health Board
- What does the Farm to School Improvements Act (H.R. 4710) do? from Farm to School
- What does the Growing Farm to School Programs Act (S. 3123) do? from Farm to School
- Washington – Certificate of Need program: A method for distributing health resources to minority communities in need
- Comprehensive Health Care Reform: MA heath care reform addressing racial disparities
- My Apartment Shouldn’t Make Me Sick: Campaigning for Healthy Housing and Racial Justice in New York City
- Immigrants Win Language Access: A Case Study in Racial Justice Organizing
- Fighting Health Disparities that Impact Montana’s Indian People: A Case Study in Racial Justice Organizing
- Pesticide-Poisoned Idaho Farmworkers Fight for Health Equity: A Case Study in Racial Justice Organizing
