Dear fellow health advocates,
Before we face the challenges of the new year, I wanted to express appreciation to you for our partnership and the progress we have made together. Once again, we ask for your support—starting with a year-end contribution, and then with your actions into the new year—to defend core coverage and consumer protections against the dire threats of a new political context.
As health reformers, we have real wins to celebrate this holiday season: we saw record high coverage levels overall, with the enrollment of over 21 million Americans getting coverage through the health care marketplaces, bolstered by a tax credit that guarantees they don't have to spend more than 8.5% of their income on premiums. We championed and heralded the work of negotiated price reductions for prescription drugs in Medicare, paired with improved caps on out-of-pocket costs for insulin, vaccines and drugs overall, all going into effect in the new year.
Yet these hard-won advances are at risk, along with so much more. The tax credits are set to expire next year without Congressional action. Many in the new majority want to repeal the entire Inflation Reduction Act, along with the Affordable Care Act, and they want to impose major cuts and caps to Medicaid as well. But that's not what they campaigned on—in fact, they often disavowed ACA repeal or Project 2025. We will need to fight against any attempts to take us back five, fifteen or even fifty years. We also need to be in solidarity with our fellow Americans whose health and livelihoods are under specific threat, based on their income, identity or immigration status.
What Americans voted for was not the shredding of the safety-net, but an affordability agenda—and they have been screaming about health care cost for years. As such, we will continue to look for ways to move forward toward a vision of health and economic security and justice. Families USA will not let up on promoting patient protections and holding health plans, hospitals and the whole industry accountable for cost, quality and equity, whether at the national level, where we testified before Congress four times this past year, or in supporting state solutions.
We look forward to working with you in the next year as we take on the threats and optimize the opportunities. To help us be ready for the fight, I hope you will consider Families USA in your end-of-year giving, using the link below.
