The time for single issue advocacy is over.
Since 2016, ACA Consumer Advocacy has been fighting to preserve and expand the availability of affordable health care in America. Our mission is to achieve truly comprehensive, universal, health care reform and educate and activate members of the public impacted by health care to advocate and work with lawmakers to achieve it. However, as the last few years, the last decades, the last century have shown us, improved access to healthcare is, like so many other parts of our shared life, meaningless if it is not available to each and every one of us. At ACA Consumer Advocacy, we are committed to fighting not only for the continuation and improvement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we are fighting for the ability of all Americans to live a full and dignified life with access to health care as a key component of that life.
While we will continue to seek protection of, access to, and expansion of the ACA, we will be examining in depth the areas in dire need of improvement that touch on our existing healthcare system. It is not enough to demand healthcare reform without also acknowledging how our society has continued to provide separate and unequal care that falls on clearly delineated lines of race, gender, religion, wealth, and more. We can no longer afford the luxury of saying we only support single-payer health care, or a public option, or health care for immigrants, or permanent protections for medical history (pre-existing conditions), or prescription cost reduction. True reform means so much more than that.
True health care reform means that we sincerely believe in what our Declaration of Independence says — that every person is endowed with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and that we are committed to making it real in our lifetime. It means that we acknowledge that health care means clean water, clean air, the ability to live without fear, the ability to earn a living wage, and the ability to vote in elections. It means believing that these things and more are basic human rights and working to truly make them a reality — to finally fulfill the promise of our nation for all. It means that none of us have the luxury of being single issue voters or advocates and ignoring tangential issues. It means we must lift up all issues, while having a main focus, and finally realize the nation we can be.
Over the next few months, we will be looking at issues that impact our health care system, and how we can and must lift up those issues and address them as we pursue comprehensive health care reform in the United States. Please join us, participate in the conversation, and let’s work together to realize a comprehensive, universal, accessible, affordable, high quality, and equitable health care system for all.
