We fought tirelessly in 2024 to make health care more equitable and affordable. The following examples are just some of the accomplishments that resulted from our work with our partners in Washington, DC, and in communities across America. 

• A record-breaking 24.2 million people enrolled in health insurance through the ACA Marketplace.
• 80% of people can now find ACA coverage for $10 or less per month.
• Nearly 93% of Americans now have health insurance, an all-time high.
• Millions of families buying health insurance through the ACA are saving an average of $2,400 per year because of enhanced premium tax credits, and new legislation has been introduced to make these enhanced tax credits permanent and prevent hikes to premiums. 
• For the first time in American history, Medicare is negotiating lower prices for prescription drugs, and in 2024 Medicare announced new, lower prices for the first set of ten drugs selected for negotiation. This is an historic achievement for the movement for more affordable health care and will save seniors $1 billion and taxpayers $6 billion in the first year alone.
• Millions of people with Medicare and Medicaid now have access to free vaccines for shingles, RSV, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, and other diseases.
• Over 55 million Medicare beneficiaries will no longer face price hikes for prescription drugs and will have their out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs capped at $2,000 per year.
• The uninsurance rates among Black and Latino Americans were essentially cut in half.

Making History: Lower Drug Costs for Seniors

The high cost of health care is a matter of life and death for millions of Americans – seniors who cut their medications in half, people with diabetes who skip their insulin, hard-working people who die unnecessarily because they can’t afford health insurance. That’s why our work makes such a difference. We saw that on August 15th, 2024, when President Biden announced that, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, for the first time in American history, Medicare negotiated the prices of ten of the most expensive drugs that more than 9 million seniors rely on to live healthy lives. These include drugs that treat cancer, diabetes, blood clots, and other serious conditions. The new, negotiated prices are 38 to 79 percent lower than their pre-negotiation prices. Seniors and taxpayers will save over $7 billion of dollars in the first year alone and lives will be saved.

The Inflation Reduction Act also caps out-of-pocket spending for prescriptions at no more than $2,000 annually for more than 55 million people with Medicare; provides free vaccines for seniors; and increases financial assistance to low-income and middle-class families so they can afford to purchase health insurance through the ACA. 

To defend this progress we are….

• Leading a comprehensive “Hands Off Medicaid” Campaign
• Educating the public about Medicaid through paid advertising 
• Lobbying extensively to keep health insurance affordable by extending the ACA premium tax credits
• Monitoring legal and legislative challenges to the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program and ACA preventive services and defending the program in Congress and the courts

Learn more about our Medicaid defense campaign

Learn more about how we defend health care in the courts

“Care Force One” Nationwide Bus Tour Rolls Again! 

Our bus tour kicked off September 23rd. From New Hampshire to California, elected officials, storytellers, and health care advocates educated the public about a wide range of health care issues. Over the course of the tour, Care Force One traveled to more than 17 states, made over 50 stops, and covered nearly 12,000 miles.

Learn more about our 2024 “Lower Costs/Better Care” bus tour  

Building a Movement for Affordable and Equitable Health Care

Our team plays a unique and pivotal role in the health care advocacy space and in the broader ecosystem of progressive nonprofits. We are a small team that makes a big difference and one that many others in the space rely on. In 2024 we:

• Created shared resources like polling and messaging guidance, reports, and fact sheets and shared them with our coalition partners.
• Convened a twice weekly call of 60-100+ participants from a 605-member list of different organizations working on health care, to share information and ideas and coordinate strategies.
• Co-hosted events and report releases with multiple organizations.
• Involved 135 state and local organizations in our state events. 

Learn more about how we work closely with national, state, and community partners. 

Highlights of Reports and Events

• Hosted an event at the Capitol called “Protecting Our Care in the Courts” that included panel discussions about the legal threats to preventive services, reproductive health care, and the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program.
• Co-sponsored an event with the NAACP’s Howard University Chapter that featured a “fireside chat” with Chiquita Brooks Lasure, the first African-American administrator of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
• Released a report in partnership with the NAACP about how the Inflation Reduction Act is lowering health care costs for African Americans.
• Hosted a virtual meeting with health care storytellers and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi highlighting pressing health care issues. 
• A press call with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) and Richard Fiesta from Alliance for Retired Americans to talk about threats to Medicare.