Our Work
Our work is centered around three broad goals: expanding coverage, lowering costs, and addressing racial disparities. We carry out this work through the following integrated strategies and activities.
Federal Policy
The extensive health policy experience and deep and strong relationships that our team has with leadership and staff in Congress and at the White House gives the POCEF unparalleled influence over national health policy making. We educate and advocate for congressional and administrative actions to expand coverage, strengthen the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, reduce health care costs, and address racial disparities in the health care system.
Education and Citizen Engagement
We produce dozens of reports and fact sheets that summarize complex health care policy ideas for our partners and grassroots activists. We also host Zoom calls with citizens, Members of Congress, and other elected officials to make sure the voice of ordinary people is heard in health care policy debates.
Medicaid Awareness Month
Every April, we release fact sheets and host events to highlight Medicaid’s critical role in America, discuss what needs to be done to expand and strengthen the program, and raise awareness of the consequences of policy proposals that would weaken Medicaid. Our Medicaid Awareness Month website is frequently updated with all-new materials.
Better Care/Lower Costs Bus Tour
The best way to educate and engage Americans in the fight for better, more affordable and more equitable health care is to meet them “where they are” in their communities. Our one-of-a-kind annual bus tour connects health care activists with each other, with the media and, most importantly, with their elected officials. We empower people to tell their stories, to actively engage in the work of democracy and to demand a better health care system for themselves and their families. In 2023, our “Care Force One” bus tour traveled 8,000 miles and included 31 events in 14 states. The POC team was joined at these stops by 3 Senators, 8 U.S. Representatives, 1 governor, 3 attorneys general and lieutenant governors, 36 local officials, and dozens of health care storytellers and advocates.
Health Care Storytellers
We have the largest and most effective network of health care storytellers in the country. This extraordinary group of people, from all demographic backgrounds, and from all walks of life, are eager to tell their personal stories about how having access to high quality and affordable health care saved their life and/or the life of someone they love. Their stories are emotional and compelling. They drive media coverage and inspire others to join the health care reform movement by putting a personal face on what is often a complex, partisan policy debate.
Advertising
Our team includes some of the most skilled and effective communicators in the health care advocacy community. We work with pollsters to refine our messages and with communications firms to produce and place television, print, radio and digital advertisements that educate and inspire.
