Families USA Kicks Off 2026 By Uniting Advocates at 31st Annual Health Action Conference

Recapping Health Action 2026, and spotlighting two Families USA storytellers who testified before Congress

Families USA kicked off the year with more than 700 health care advocates in Washington, D.C. to strategize, educate, and inspire at Health Action 2026. Together, this group of activists, policy experts, academics, organizers, and other partners from across the country launched their 2026 work by sharpening their mission and sharing strategies to ensure that they can continue fighting for all Americans to have access to affordable and high-quality health care.

The Main Stage

We were honored to have a number of incredible frontline advocates speak on the main stage . Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and Dr. Roger Mitchell, President of the National Medical Association, opened the conference by sharing their insights and expectations for what lay ahead in 2026.

Johnson presented a rallying call for the next year of work ahead: "Do we want to be right or do we want to be ready?" She discussed the need for health care advocates to hold strong to their goals and continue fighting together. "We are fighting for a vision that is worth fighting for," she said. "But history does not bend because we are right. It bends because we are ready to fight."

Dr. Mitchell carried on the guiding theme that advocates should work together despite adversity, particularly attempts by the current administration to undo decades of progress on health equity. "There is an active attempt to erase the history of inclusion and recreate exclusion, which leads to worse health outcomes," he said. "Lives are being lost and people are counting on us to do the work."

Another main stage session focused specifically on the incoming impacts of the massive health care cuts passed in 2025 by Trump and Republicans in Congress. Congresswoman Dr. Kelly Morrison from Minnesota's 3^rd District, spoke directly to attendees about how they can hold Congress accountable for harm done to their communities. This discussion also featured speakers from Community Change, Kentucky Voices for Health, Vot-ER, and Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, former administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and current Families USA board member.

Congresswoman Morrison highlighted the "catastrophe" that is our health care system today, particularly the loss of the ACA tax credits, the disregard for science and evidence in public health policy by the Trump administration, and the deadly consequences of delayed care. She closed our luncheon plenary session by highlighting the very reason why we've brought together so many activists and storytellers for this conference. "The most powerful tool to making a change in our health care system is making health care personal," she said.

Day one of the conference ended with an important conversation on the current environment impacting our public health infrastructure, with the afternoon plenary session on "Protecting our Public Health" featuring Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director at American Public Health Association, Linda Goler Blount, President & CEO at Community Catalyst, Angela Botticella, Managing Director at the Governors Public Health Alliance, and Dr. Aaron E. Carroll, President & CEO of AcademyHealth. These leaders highlighted the major damage to public health that has been caused by mass firings at federal agencies and funding cuts across health programs and offered strategies for how advocates from different health care sectors can come together to protect the health of all Americans, and fight to restore our public health infrastructure.

Breakout Sessions

2025 brought a number of escalating funding cuts and other barriers to affordability and access across a wide range of health care areas - cuts to Medicaid funding, skyrocketing ACA premiums, threats to reproductive health care access, attacks on LGBTQ+ people and immigrant communities, and more. Our conference featured over twenty breakout sessions featuring experts on a wide range of issues who highlighted winning advocacy strategies for how we can fight back against these attacks and protect access to affordable health care for everyone.

Speakers from a variety of our partner organizations - including the National Immigration Law Center, the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition, Abortion in America, and Power to Decide - brought attention to recent challenges to health equity and reproductive health care access. Representatives from Defend Public Health, NMAC, and the Southern Alliance for Public Health Leadership addressed the rise of the "MAHA" movement and threats to public health.

Drug pricing has consistently been a critical affordability issue for consumers, which was addressed in a session by leaders from Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and the National Academy for State Health Policy. Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Covered California, and Manatt Health joined Families USA staff to discuss advocacy opportunities aimed at limiting the number of Americans who will lose coverage due to new barriers such as work reporting requirements.

Additional exciting breakout sessions discussed topics including coverage for diabetes care, communicating about health in the face of misinformation, rural health care transformation, and fighting back against cuts at the state level. There were also sessions on how health justice and equity advocates can come together to support communities under attack, how to protect state programs from federal cuts, the importance of patient protections in private insurance coverage, and more.

Spotlights on Stories

While the main events of the conference kept us busy, we know the work never takes a break - several blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue, the House of Representatives held two hearings on Thursday focused on health insurance access, affordability, and accountability. Families USA worked with two consumer advocates, Ellen Allen of West Virginia, and ReShonda Young of Iowa, to share their stories of how access to health insurance through the Affordable Care Act - and vitally, how the enhanced premium tax credits - have helped them afford their coverage and access to care. Ellen and ReShonda shared how the enhanced tax credits have allowed them to keep continuous coverage during critical times in their lives, including job transitions and unexpected medical diagnoses, and emphasized the importance of extending these tax credits to maintain affordable coverage not only for them, but for the 22 million Americans who rely on them.

Stop The Bleed

Attendees hit the ground running for day two of the conference at the morning plenary session with a big vision: "Building the Health Care System We Deserve." Bob Herman, Reporter at STAT led a discussion with Shawn Gremminger, President and CEO at National Alliance Health, Manny Pastreich, President at SEIU Local 32BJ, Dr. Chris Pernell, Director at NAACP Center for Health Equity, and Families USA's Senior Director of Health Policy, Sophia Tripoli focused on how affordability has been the rallying issue among health care consumers in 2025 and will continue to be in 2026.

In an exciting announcement, this event featured the launch of the new Families USA affordability campaign, "Stop The Bleed: Cut Costs, Not Care." This new campaign highlights the real drivers of rising health care costs, unchecked corporate profiteering.

"In all fifty states we will put candidates on the record," said Tripoli, "Anyone who wants to play a role in leading this country must show that they understand the problem and have a plan for how they will actually take on corporate greed to lower health care costs."

Advocates of the Year

In what is always one of the most inspiring and uplifting portions of the conference, Families USA hosted our annual Advocates of the Year Luncheon on day two, where we celebrated four incredible health care advocates who have all fought tirelessly to transform our health care system: Roy Mitchell, Executive Director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, Debbie Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs, Ann Woloson, Executive Director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care in Maine, and Rhonda Rogombe, Health and Safety Net Policy Analyst at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

Closing

In our closing session "Fighting Back, Rising Stronger," FUSA's Executive Director Anthony Wright was joined by Deborah Bachrach, Partner at Manatt Health and Chair of the Board of Directors for Families USA, and Dr. Camille Busette, Executive Vice President of Programs at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The three speakers made a strong closing statement on how all the incredible advocates who joined us at this year's Health Action Conference can join together to protect Americans against the devastating attacks on our health care system.

"I know that our work is not going to be easy, but look around… You are not alone," said Dr. Busette. "We are all in excellent company here. I pledge to you that together we will see a future where health is a right and not a privilege. We will see that our democracy is protected. We will see real movement toward racial equity, and we will see justice for all."

Did you miss us this year? Don't worry, the Health Action Conference happens every January! Sign up for Health Action Network and follow us on all platforms to stay tuned for more information on HAC 2027. Save the Date for January 21-22, 2027.