Families USA

Families USA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer health advocacy organization. It was co-founded in 1982 by attorney Ronald Pollack, its current 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 (ACA), the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), 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, President 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.

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 (FRAC), 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 (WIC). Mr. Pollack is the founding and current board chair of Enroll America, an organization dedicated to enrolling people in health coverage who were previously uninsured.

Mr. 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 Mr. 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 Mr. Pollack one of the top 25 players in Congress, the Administration, and the lobbying community on Medicare prescription drug benefits.

See also

• List of healthcare reform advocacy groups in the United States
• Physicians for a National Health Program

External links

• Official website
• Campaign for Children's Health Care