Families USA a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer health advocacy organization, is a leading national voice for health care consumers. The organization is dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care and improved health for all. Families USA was co-founded in 1981 by Ronald Pollack, its first executive director, and Philippe Villers, the organization's current president. Families USA is an influential advocate in Washington, D.C., and has played a leading role on virtually every major piece of health care legislation, especially the Affordable Care Act, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, numerous Medicaid measures, and the Medicare Part D plan. President Barack Obama credited Families USA with playing an instrumental role in promoting the enactment of the ACA and for the organization’s work helping to implement and protect the historic health legislation. On a printed copy of the ACA displayed in Families USA’s office, Obama wrote “To Ron and Families USA – You made this happen!” Families USA is one of the leaders of a national campaign to persuade states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, producing analysis documenting the many benefits of extending health coverage for state economies and low-income people. As a result, the organization plays an active role in promoting national and state-specific improvements in this safety-net program. Families USA has organized several structured dialogues on key health care issues among diverse stakeholder organization leaders, including those representing insurers, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, business, labor, and consumers. One such dialogue led to the creation of the Campaign for Children’s Health Care, which successfully pushed to extend CHIP. Another set of dialogues sought and achieved common ground on extending health coverage to the uninsured. A more recent dialogue developed proposals for promoting increased quality care at lower costs. On November 23, 2016, Vanity Fair reported that shortly after Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Families USA held a conference call with more than 1,000 people from all 50 states to discuss efforts to keep the Affordable Care Act alive. In 2017, Frederick Isasi was appointed Executive Director of Families USA.
Mission
Families USA’s purpose is to ensure that every individual in the nation has access to the best health and health care. Their work is focused on making specific, strategic, and systemic improvements to the health and health care of the nation—improvements that make a real difference in people’s lives, particularly the most vulnerable in the nation. Families USA employs a goal-oriented theory of change; believing that achieving change rests on the ability to identify moments on the community, state, or national level when the simultaneous activation of diverse coalitions, together with the application of a full range of policy and advocacy expertise—practical policy analysis, inclusive decision maker outreach, and strategic public communications—can make change a reality. Families USA’s work is focused on leveraging the power of government and government programs as well as private health care funding streams to drive toward sustainability. Families USA advances its mission by combining policy expertise and partnerships with community, state, and national leaders to forge transformational solutions that improve the health and health care of American families.
Background
Families USA’s co-founder, Ronald Pollack, has created a number of other organizations. For 10 years he served as the founding executive director of the Food Research and Action Center, an organization devoted to ending hunger in America. At FRAC, he successfully argued two cases on the same day in the U.S. Supreme Court that protected food aid for low-income people, and he argued the federal court case that initiated the Supplemental Feeding Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Pollack is the founding and current board chair of Enroll America, an organization dedicated to enrolling people in health coverage who were previously uninsured. Pollack was Dean of the Antioch University School of Law. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to be the sole consumer representative on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, which developed the Patients’ Bill of Rights. The Hill named Pollack one of the nine top nonprofit lobbyists. Modern Healthcare named him one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Health Care. National Journal named Pollack one of the top 25 players in Congress, the Administration, and the lobbying community on Medicare prescription drug benefits.
Focus Areas
Families USA's work centers on the following four focus areas for achieving a nation where everyone has access to the best health and health care.
Coverage
Equity
Value
Consumer Engagement
Achievements/Accreditation
Obama credited Families USA with playing an instrumental role in promoting the enactment of the ACA and for the organization’s work helping to implement and protect the historic health legislation. On a printed copy of the ACA displayed in Families USA’s office, Obama wrote “To Ron and Families USA – You made this happen!”
