Dear Partners,
As we reflect on 2020 this New Year’s Eve, Families USA wanted to send a brief note of gratitude to each of you for your dedication to the health movement, resilience during some of the toughest and darkest days, and for your leadership, partnership and collective activism. Our team is immensely grateful and honored to be working with all of you to carry forward our shared advocacy for optimal health and health care for all of America’s families.
Beyond our gratitude to you, please know that your actions and efforts made a huge difference! So, to mark the end of the year on a high note, we wanted to recognize our community’s collective wins in spite of the challenges that 2020 presented to us, including:
- Finally ending achieving federal action on surprise bills for consumers starting in 2022, building on the tremendous work done in states across the country to curb this egregious practice;
- Successfully passing Medicaid expansion in Missouri and Oklahoma, in addition to implementation of full expansion in Nebraska and Utah;
- Providing relief to individuals, families, and small businesses struggling in the midst of the pandemic, including through enhanced unemployment insurance benefits, additional family medical leave, nutrition assistance, and eviction protections;
- Centering equity in COVID-19 response, including pushes from advocates to ensure the incoming Biden administration commits to dismantling systemic racism and advancing racial equity in pandemic response and beyond;
- Boosting Medicaid FMAP rates and enacting Maintenance of Effort requirements within Medicaid that provide additional coverage protections for millions of people; and
- Extending the amount of time people can take to enroll in Marketplace and COBRA coverage.
Please know that without your leadership, partnership, and collective activism, achieving the above would not have been possible. No question, health advocates dug deep this year and delivered significantly for hundreds of millions of people who sorely needed help during these unprecedented times.
Thank you for your partnership and for everything that you do to improve the health and health care for all in our country. Here’s to hope, optimism, and action in 2021.
Cheers to your health,
Lisa Hunter
Senior Director for Strategic Partnerships
|
|
|
|
|
