2022 Impact Report
An Historic Year for Health Care in America
Protect Our Care fought tirelessly in 2022 to achieve the most significant victories for health care since the ACA was passed in 2010.
It’s hard to believe that December 9, 2022 was the 6th anniversary of the founding of Protect Our Care. The time flies by when you’re doing good work in the company of trusted friends, supporters, and colleagues.
Together we have made a profound difference in the lives of tens of millions of people. We stopped repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), protected the ACA in the courts, made coverage of pre-existing conditions the decisive issue in the 2018 election, and made health care a key issue again in 2020 and 2022. We also fought back against COVID misinformation and supported robust federal solutions to the pandemic. We played a major role in the passage of the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act. As a result, more Americans have health insurance than at any time in our history, and we are lowering the price of insurance premiums and prescription drugs. I’m proud of what the Protect Our Care team has achieved, and we are eager to continue fighting to make health care more affordable, accessible, and equitable for all.
We have an aggressive agenda for 2023 that includes defending and equitably implementing the health care provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act; strengthening Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and expanding our efforts to reduce racial, ethnic, and other inequities in the health care system. We will do what it takes to defend our recent victories from a Republican-controlled House of Representatives that has promised to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, sunset Medicare, weaken Medicaid, and try again to repeal the ACA.
Health care is a critical kitchen table issue in America. Even those of us with health insurance worry about how we will find and afford the health care we need when we get sick. Imagine that anxiety and hardship when you can’t afford insurance, or have to choose between the medicine you or your children need or paying for food or rent. Too many Americans face that choice every day. And that is why whether you live in a red or blue state, in urban or rural America, the cost and availability of quality health care is so important.
I’d like to thank all of you who have supported Protect Our Care over the past six years. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch this short video highlighting how our work impacts people’s health. As this report illustrates, your support has made a real difference.
Best regards,
Leslie Dach
Founder and Chair, Protect Our Care
2022: An Historic Year for Health Care in America
The Protect Our Care team fought tirelessly in 2022 to achieve the most significant victories for health care since the ACA was passed in 2010. The Inflation Reduction Act will lower prescription drug costs and ACA premiums – expanding coverage and advancing equity. We are now advocating for several policies that strengthen coverage for children, moms, and everyone on Medicaid to be included in end-of-year legislation. Additionally, we supported critical steps to stop surprise billing, fix the ACA’s “family glitch,” and improve maternal health. Taken together, these measures have made health care more affordable and resulted in an all-time high insured rate of 92%.
By the Numbers:
Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act
13 million
Americans with health insurance from an ACA marketplace plan will save an average of $2,400 per family on their premiums.
49 million
Medicare beneficiaries will no longer face outrageous price hikes for prescription drugs and will have their out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs capped at $2,000 per year beginning in 2025.
Insulin copays are capped at $35 per month
for Medicare beneficiaries beginning in 2023.
80 of the most expensive prescription drugs
will have lower prices because of Medicare negotiations by 2030.
All Medicare Part D beneficiaries will have access to covered vaccines
such as Shingles and Tdap, at no cost starting in 2023.
By the Numbers:
Health Care Was a Top Concern for the Public in 2022
A series of public opinion surveys conducted in October 2022 found that health care was a top concern for Americans.
In a Pew Research Center survey 63% of registered voters said that health care was “very important” to their vote in the 2022 election.
In a Gallup and West Health survey, nearly nine out of 10 Americans said that a candidate’s plan to reduce the cost of prescription drugs was “very” or “somewhat important” in determining their vote.
How We Did It: Highlights of Protect Our Care’s 2022 Activities
Our new website provides details about our mission, our issue priorities, and what we do. Some of the highlights of 2022 include:
- Our “Lower Costs, Better Care” Bus Tour made 40 stops across 20 states and 12,000 miles to educate the public about how the Inflation Reduction Act will lower health care costs. These events included 8 U.S. Senators, 23 U.S Representatives, 2 Governors, 4 Attorney Generals and Lt. Governors, 25 local officials, and dozens of health care advocates.
- With support from a new grant from a charitable foundation, we launched a project to grow, diversify and train the largest network of healthcare storytellers in the country. The Storyteller Corps will amplify the voices of ordinary Americans who are calling for more affordable and more equitable health care in America.
- Our “Health Care War Room,” a team of experts in health care policy, communications, policy advocacy and social and paid media advocated effectively for our policy agenda on Capitol Hill and with the Biden administration. President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Congressman Clyburn and other top leaders in Congress describe the impact of Protect Our Care in this video.
- Our Communications team worked with our staff in 14 states to generate 360 clips and 57 op-eds in national, state, and local media. They also hosted 20 press calls featuring prominent elected officials and health policy experts, many of which included staff from our partner organizations and/or our health care storytellers.
- Our State Teams conducted more than 150 events in 16 states with 47 U.S. Representatives and 12 U.S. Senators. These events also featured 78 state and local elected officials and 240 health care professionals, advocates, and storytellers.
- Our Research team produced more than 300 factsheets and reports about a wide range of health policy issues. These materials educated the media, elected officials, our coalition partners and the public about our issues with both national and state-level analysis.
- We sponsored a $6 million television and digital advertising campaign educating the public about what health care champions in Congress can do to make health care more affordable. For example, one of our ads told the story of Jessica, a single mom with multiple chronic health conditions, who saved $200 per month because her health insurance premiums were reduced by the American Rescue Plan.
What’s Next for Protect Our Care?
We are excited about the progress we have made over the past six years and particularly in 2021 and 2022. In these past two years, we have been winning the battle for more affordable and equitable health care. But those victories are very much in jeopardy. Republicans in Congress and powerful, well-financed lobbyists will do everything they can to repeal and/or weaken the ACA and the Inflation Reduction Act, and roll back the progress that has been made. We must defend these victories while we look for opportunities to advance positive policy changes on national and state levels. With the support of our donors and partners we will:
- Continue the work of our DC Health Care War Room and state teams to defend the ACA, the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicaid, and Medicare from ongoing political attacks.
- Work closely with officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, and with state health policy leaders, to ensure that the health care provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act are fully, effectively, and equitably implemented and counter public attacks and legal challenges from the pharmaceutical industry.
- Launch a new initiative called the Health Care Legal Defense Action Center to coordinate a legal and communications campaign to defeat lawsuits that have, or soon will be, filed against the ACA, the Inflation Reduction Act, and other health care policies that improve access to affordable and equitable health care.
- Increase our efforts to advance health equity through administrative and legislative actions to close the gaps in insurance coverage, reduce costs, and improve data collection. We will also encourage innovations in care delivery and payment models to address variations in the quality of care and improve health outcomes. Finally, we will continue our advocacy campaigns on Medicaid expansion, CHIP, and maternal and child health.
- Build on the momentum for prescription drug price reforms created by the Inflation Reduction Act to achieve further policy victories on the federal and/or state level that will reduce prescription drug costs. These will include extending the inflation rebate, insulin cap and negotiated drug prices into non-Medicare markets.
Why It Matters: “He’s a Six-Year-Old Fireball!”
As impressive as these numbers are, the work of Protect Our Care is ultimately about people. It’s about their right to get the health care they need for themselves and for their families. One of the highlights of 2022 was telling the story of Steve Gomez and his six-year old son, Anthony. As Steve told President Obama in this video (on a surprise FaceTime call!), his son Anthony could have died from a congenital heart condition without the health care he received thanks to the ACA. There would have been no way that Steve and his wife could have paid the $3 million cost of Anthony’s care. Now, as Steve excitedly told President Obama, Anthony is a “six-year-old fireball!”….with a thousand megawatt smile!
Put simply, health care matters! The hard work of the Protect Our Care team matters! We will continue to fight for millions of families like the Gomezes.
About Protect Our Care
Protect Our Care is dedicated to making high-quality, affordable, and equitable health care a right, and not a privilege, for everyone in America. We educate the public, influence policy, support health care champions and hold politicians accountable. Our priorities include expanding access to affordable, high-quality health insurance, lowering the cost of health care for individuals and families, and reducing inequities in health care based on gender, income, race, ethnicity, geography, or sexual preference. Our strategy combines an action-oriented approach with a best-in-class earned media and communications program, a highly effective inside game with policy makers, and deep engagement at the state and local level.
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Ways To Give to Protect Our Care
Protect Our Care operates as a 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit that is fiscally sponsored by the Sixteen Thirty Fund and a 501(c)(3) public charity that is fiscally sponsored by the New Venture Fund.
You can make a contribution to the Sixteen Thirty Fund or the New Venture Fund to support Protect Our Care on our website, via check, wire transfer, ACH, and stock. Contributions to the Sixteen Thirty Fund are not tax deductible. Contributions to the New Venture Fund to support Protect Our Care are tax deductible.
Online C4 Donation
You may donate on our website.
Online C3 Donation
You can make a tax deductible contribution to Protect Our Care on our website.
Donations by Check, Wire Transfer, ACH and/or of Stock
For information about how to donate to either the Sixteen Thirty Fund or the New Venture Fund in support of Protect Our Care by check, wire transfer, ACH, stock or from a Donor Advised Fund, please contact Matt Farrey, Chief Development Officer at [email protected].
Foundation Grants
Protect Our Care is primarily funded by grants from charitable foundations and other institutional donors. Institutional donors can make general support grants to either our c3 or c4 arms, may designate funding for specific initiatives and/or may fund a special project through a restricted grant with clearly defined goals, deliverables and expenses.