Fighting for Affordable Health Care
I founded Protect Our Care in 2017 to stop Donald Trump from repealing the Affordable Care Act—and we succeeded.
But today, the threat to our health care is even more severe. Trump’s nomination of anti-vaccine and anti-science zealot Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be HHS Secretary makes it clear that the second Trump administration will be more dangerous to health care in America than any presidential administration in modern American history. We need your help to protect our care again.
This will be a difficult struggle and the consequences of failure are enormous. 160 million Americans depend on the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. Donald Trump and his allies will try to decimate them all. His policies and actions will be particularly devastating for the most vulnerable in our nation, the poor and communities of color. I am proud of our track record of winning the legislative and political battles that must be won to protect and strengthen health care in America. With your help, we can win again.
I hope you will take a few moments to read the story of Protect Our Care described in this mailing and that you will be willing to support us with a donation at this critical time.
Leslie Dach,
Founder and Chair, Protect Our Care
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“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Health care in America is too expensive, too inequitable, and too much of a barrier to financial security and economic opportunity for tens of millions. No one in our country should die a preventable death, suffer from chronic pain that could be relieved, or have to cope with a debilitating physical or mental illness that could be treated. And yet, for too many, that is the harsh reality of the high cost and inequity of health care in America. In the past four years, we have made great progress. More people have health insurance than ever before and we are lowering the cost of prescription drugs. But all of that progress is now under severe threat. Donald Trump’s policies and appointees will devastate health care in America and make it more unjust and inhumane than ever. His agenda must be stopped.
Donald Trump is an Existential Threat to Health Care in America
Trump and his MAGA Republican allies have pledged to repeal and/or sabotage the Affordable Care Act and slash Medicaid and Medicare funding. These policies would remove protections for people with pre-existing conditions, raise prescription drug and health insurance premium costs, and strip away health care from millions of Americans. Trump will enact draconian funding cuts and restructuring that would devastate Medicaid and threaten health care for its 73 million enrollees. These include low income children and adults as well as people with disabilities and seniors who need long-term care.
Furthermore, Trump allies want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which will stop Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices for seniors, raise drug prices for seniors, and hike the cost of health insurance premiums. Taken together, our efforts on health equity will suffer major losses.
The Need for Protect Our Care’s Work Has Never Been More Urgent
Protect Our Care was the first line of defense in saving the Affordable Care Act in 2017 and has been the “tip of the spear” since then in the never ending struggle to defend and strengthen health care in America. And we are ready to double down on our efforts to defeat the challenges ahead. Our team plays a unique and pivotal role in the health care advocacy space and in the broader ecosystem of progressive nonprofits. We are an action-oriented organization that combines experience and expertise in policy, politics, legislative strategy, advocacy, message development, communications, and organizing. We are a small team that makes a big difference and one that many others in the space rely on.
Working closely with our national and community based partners we educate the public, the media, and policymakers about how important these federal health care programs are to millions of Americans. We create shared resources like polling and messaging guidance, reports, and fact sheets and work closely with our state teams to draft press releases, conduct press calls, organize events to generate media coverage, place op-eds, engage with elected officials, and amplify the voices of our health care storytellers. This combined “inside-outside” legislative strategy is proven and cost-effective.
Perhaps most importantly, because we operate as both a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, we are able to fight the political, communications and legislative battles that must be won to protect and strengthen health care in America. We hold politicians accountable for their health care records and champion those who are in this fight with us.
We fight and we know how to win…but we need your support.
What’s Next?
We will defeat attacks on health care. In particular, we will defend the enormous progress that was made under the Biden administration which included: record enrollment of 21 million in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans; Medicare for the first time negotiating what it pays for prescription drugs; a $35 monthly cap on Insulin for seniors; and a total out-of-pocket spending cap for prescriptions of $2,000 annually for seniors.
Additionally, while we defend this progress, we will also seek to achieve more policy wins in Washington, DC and we will significantly expand our advocacy for state health care policy to:
- Expand and improve Medicaid to cover millions more people;
- Lower prescription drug prices even more, including a $35 monthly cap for everyone who takes insulin; and
- Address the maternal health crisis and make America the safest place in the world to be pregnant, give birth, and be a mother.
We hope you will join the Protect Our Care community by becoming a donor. The need for your support has never been more urgent than it is now. You can help us build a better and more equitable health care system in America for all.
Why is Health Care So Important
The Protect Our Care team fights to make health care better and more affordable. We do this because people need health care to succeed in education and in the workforce and so that they can be physically and emotionally healthy throughout their lives.
People need health care…
To Be Healthy
- People without insurance coverage are much more likely to delay or forgo getting care, including preventive care and services for major health conditions and chronic diseases.
- Thanks to the ACA, insurers cannot deny coverage to the 50%+ of Americans who have a pre-existing health condition like asthma, diabetes, cancer, or who are pregnant.
For Financial Security
- Health care is so expensive that nearly one-third of GoFundMe campaigns are dedicated to raising money to help people pay medical debt.
- 1 in 5 seniors do not take their prescribed medications because they’re too expensive.
For Success in Education and for Economic Mobility
- The ACA improves reading scores for children born to low income mothers.
- Expansion of Medicaid coverage has benefited pregnant women and their infants and made it much more likely that they will graduate from high school.
For Emotional Well-Being
- Medicaid is the single-largest payer for mental health services in America, serving 26% of all adults living with a serious mental health condition.
- 12% of Medicaid enrollees 18+ receive comprehensive care for a substance use disorder.
Why Give to Protect Our Care?
- We are a One-of-a Kind “War Room” for Health Care: We are the first line of defense against relentless right wing attacks on health care. We are successful lobbyists for more positive health care legislation. We are nimble, strategic and we move fast. Put simply, we know how to win.
- We do the Politics of Health Care: Health care is a politicized policy issue. We fill a unique space in the world of progressive policy advocacy by holding politicians accountable for their health care records, and championing those who are in this fight with us.
- We Deliver Profound Social Impact: 45 million Americans with health care thanks to the ACA. Seniors saving thousands of dollars per year on the cost of their medications. Maternal and mental health care being provided for millions, free vaccines and affordable care for poor children, insulin payments for seniors capped at $35 per month. And more…
- Our Cause is Underfunded: Compared to other causes, the philanthropic resources devoted to health care policy advocacy are small. The need for more donations to groups like Protect Our Care is real and the social impact return on that charitable investment is exceptional.
- We are Cost-Effective: As a fiscally sponsored organization with full-time equivalent staff of 24 that works remotely, we have very low overhead costs. We estimate that approximately 90% of a donation is invested in the people and programs that directly achieve our mission.
Health Care Storytellers
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It (the Affordable Care Act) does so much for families like us and just so much for Anthony…He’s six years old now. He’s a six year old fireball.
Why our work matters!
The work of Protect Our Care is about people. It’s about their right to get the health care they need for themselves and for their families. Steve Gomez and his then six-year old son, Anthony, shared their story with Protect Our Care.
Without the Affordable Care Act, Steve’s son, Anthony, could have died from a congenital heart condition. His family would not have been able to afford the cost of Anthony’s $3 million life saving care he so desperately needed.
As he told President Obama in 2022, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Anthony is now a “six-year-old fireball!”….with a thousand megawatt smile!
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You have been out there telling your story and fighting the good fight to make sure more people get coverage…thank you!