Transforming Health and Healthcare Systems
We envision a nation where transformed healthcare and public health systems are fair and just, treat all people with dignity and respect, rectify past harms, and prevent future ones.
We invest in grassroots leaders, movement organizations, and community power to fundamentally change the systems that shape people's health, not just improve them at the margins.
What does a transformed healthcare system look like?
We are advancing four priority goals:
Confronting Structural Racism
Where communities most harmed by structural racism lead the way to a healthcare system that is fair, just, and built for everyone
We partner with communities most harmed by the unfair and broken parts of healthcare to do something different: build a shared vision of what anti-racist healthcare looks like and design the roadmaps to get there, today and for the long term.
- Only Solidarity Can Defeat Division
- The BLIS Collective is centering Black, Indigenous, and working-class people with a clear-eyed vision of a world where all people belong. Read the blog
- A New Vision for Care
- The U.S. healthcare system needs transformational change, but where do we start? This podcast explores how accountability, inclusive leadership, and community organizing can lead the way. Listen to the episode
Public Health Accountable to Communities
Where communities have real power in public health decisions
We support leaders and organizations working to transform a governmental public health system that earns the trust of the people to change the policies and practices that drive inequity. This includes helping communities tell their own stories, supporting them to have real power in public health decisions, and advancing policies that make the system work for those it historically failed most.
- Civic Engagement + Public Health
- The Health & Democracy Peer Group is a collaborative space for community-based organizations, health departments, and healthcare organizations interested in building trust in government and public health so they work for the people. Learn more
- A New Vision for Public Health
- How can we address communities’ public health needs in real time? Changemakers discuss a new day for public health that centers communities. Listen to the epsisode
Health Over Profit
Where patients receive timely care that’s guided by their doctors’ expertise—not pursuit of profit
Private equity, corporate investors, insurance companies,
and hospital systems are buying practices, hospitals, nursing homes, and
emergency departments to increase profits for investors, rather than improve
care. That’s financialization in healthcare. Historically disadvantaged groups
are hit hardest: for example, investors target safety-net hospitals and other
healthcare facilities in Black and brown communities, and medical debt disproportionallyaffects lower-wage workers.
We’re confronting the harm that occurs when healthcare
organizations prioritize profit over the health of people and communities. To
do this, we’re building a powerful network of organizations and advocates who
advance alternatives that lead to community-driven solutions, racial and
economic fairness, and a more just financial system.
- Healthcare as a Public Good
- This podcast explores strategies to find common ground and help people access the care they need without falling into debt. Listen to the episode
- Pursuit of Profit Harms Patients and Physicians
- Physicians for a National Health Program illustrates how a profit-driven health system harms patient care and physician wellbeing. Read the research
- Insurance Denials Harm the Most Vulnerable Patients
- People’s Action Institute examined how financial considerations influence insurers’ decision making. Learn more
Reproductive Justice
Where individuals and families can access respectful, culturally grounded, and safe reproductive care.
We support organizations and leaders working to advance reproductive justice and build collective power across communities. This includes honoring, reclaiming, and protecting Black midwifery through anti-racist policy and narrative change—and positioning midwives to lead the transformed, just health systems we are working to build together.
- A New Future for Birthing Care
- Birth Center Equity aims for 50% of babies to be born with midwifery care by 2050. Take the pledge
- Fighting for Freedom
- Black midwives in Georgia are fighting the state’s restrictive midwifery laws that harm Black mothers. Learn more
- Centering Black Birthing Experiences
- Advocates discuss how their first-hand experiences with reproductive care called them to fight for reproductive justice. Listen to the episode
How will we transform health and healthcare systems?
- Advancing Anti-Racist Policies
- We’re changing policies and resource allocation in states, and advancing alternative financial and ownership models for health systems.
- Building Community Power
- We’re investing in power building to change policies and practices at the community level, and for workers in healthcare, public health, and reproductive justice.
- Cultivating Inclusive and Accountable Leadership
- We’re strengthening leadership at the grassroots level and throughout healthcare, public health, and reproductive justice organizations.
- Changing Narratives
- We’re shifting mindsets that reinforce racism in healthcare and public health by naming and confronting harms and creating enthusiasm for a new narrative.
- We’re shifting mindsets that reinforce racism in healthcare and public health by naming and confronting harms and creating enthusiasm for a new narrative.
What does success look like?
- Resources for healthcare and public health systems are equitable, aligned, and advance racial+ justice.
- People directly harmed by racism and other oppressive systems have power to change healthcare and public health systems for the better.
- Organizations that are accountable to communities of color can influence public health and healthcare, and support community-driven innovation.
- The population buys into our vision of transformed healthcare and public health systems.