VIDEO

The League of Women Voters of Roselle-Bloomingdale Area hosted a free virtual presentation, Healthcare Affordability Crisis: Reforms We Needed Yesterday, on Wednesday, September 16, 2026.

Polls consistently show that healthcare costs remain a significant concern for voters. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance increased 9% in 2025, reaching an average of $26,993. At the same time, Americans experience a shorter life expectancy than residents of many other wealthy nations, while proposed federal policy changes continue to spark debate over access to healthcare coverage.

The program examined factors contributing to rising healthcare costs and explore policy reforms proposed by advocates across the healthcare spectrum.

The first speaker, Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project, discussed the impact of consolidation and vertical integration in healthcare markets. Research indicates that reduced competition can contribute to higher prices for medical services and insurance coverage, while complex billing and administrative systems add significantly to healthcare spending. Mr. Stoller highlighted state and local reform efforts aimed at increasing price transparency, standardizing healthcare pricing, and limiting the influence of corporate intermediaries. 

The second speaker, Dr. Claudia M. Fegan, National Coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, discussed alternative approaches to healthcare financing. Dr. Fegan will compare the current reimbursement system with proposals for a national healthcare program, including Medicare for All. She addressed issues such as access to care, administrative costs, reimbursement incentives, and the role of patients, physicians, insurers, and healthcare organizations in medical decision-making.

High healthcare costs affect household budgets, employers, and government programs alike, making healthcare affordability one of the nation's most pressing public policy challenges. This program will provide attendees with an opportunity to learn about the forces shaping healthcare costs and the reforms being proposed to address them.

INDIVIDUAL ADVOCACY GUIDANCE

Healthcare Affordability Crisis: Reform Advocacy for Individuals

Background

A January 2026 KFF Health Tracking Poll found that health care costs are the top economic worry for Democrats, Independents, Republicans, and supporters of President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. Among major developed nations, the U.S. is the only one that operates its healthcare system as a commercial enterprise and is the only one without a national healthcare program.  Bloomberg Tax commented, “the healthcare affordability crisis is crushing everyone, but has become downright calamitous for small businesses.” Two changes in health insurance laws dramatically affected the healthcare insurance outlook for many Americans:

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed in July 2025, created Medicaid work requirements, tightened marketplace eligibility verification, changed subsidy rules for some immigrants, and expanded health savings accounts.

The enhanced premium tax credits expired on December 31, 2025 because the law that created them was allowed to sunset. 

Key Points:

• 22 economic studies predict single-payer health insurance would yield net savings over several years and is the only way to significantly rein in healthcare spending in the U.S. 
• Globally, the US is by far the highest spender on total health costs per capita and has the highest healthcare spending from taxes. 
• Despite that high spending, Americans live an average of 3 years less and the U.S. has fewer primary care doctors and medical school graduates than peer countries.
• The high cost of health care is a burden on U.S. families:
• Approximately 15 million people are expected to become uninsured by 2034 due to cuts in Medicaid and ACA marketplaces
• A 2024 survey found that 35% of working-age adults are considered underinsured, meaning they have inadequate insurance coverage or face high out-of-pocket costs.
• Medical debt is the largest source of debt collection in the U.S. and the leading cause of bankruptcy.
• Consolidation in the health sector often leads to higher costs without corresponding improvements in care quality and disadvantages independent practitioners.
• Health care conglomerates are evolving into vertically integrated platforms, raising concerns about monopolistic tendencies and diminished competition.
• The report, “Moral Injury in Medicine: The Human Costs of Practicing in a Profit-Driven System” describes how financialization harms the morale of US healthcare workers, leading to provider shortages and patient overload.
• Countries with stronger democracies tend to provide more affordable, high-quality, and universal healthcare because they treat health care as a human right and regulate providers. 
• Open Secrets reveals a dramatic increase in health industry lobbying. In 2025, 3,467 lobbyists spent approximately $877 million, a record high, to influence healthcare policy.

In the webinar, Healthcare Affordability Crisis: Reforms We Needed Yesterday, Dr. Claudia Fegan, National Coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, and Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project, provide further background on factors contributing to rising healthcare costs and proposed policy reforms.

LWVUS Position on Healthcare Reform

The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that a basic level of quality healthcare at an affordable cost should be available to all US residents. The LWVUS position clearly supports “a national program financed through general taxes in place of individual…premiums” — now also called Improved and Enhanced Medicare for All. The following points are found in the League’s Position on Health Care in Impact on Issues 2024-2026.

• The League favors a national health insurance plan financed through general taxes in place of individual insurance premiums.
• The League supports the single-payer concept as a viable and desirable approach to implementing League positions on equitable access, affordability, and financial feasibility.
• The League is opposed to a strictly private market-based model of financing.
• Specific cost-control methods should reflect the most-credible, evidence-based research available on how health care financing and administrative policy affects equitable access, quality of care and consumer cost for health care.
• The League favors health insurance access independent of employment status.

Top-Down Federal Proposals for Reform

Medicare for All Act: Introduced in the U.S. House (H.R. 3069) and U.S. Senate (S.1506) in April, 2025, these bills would establish a single-payer national health program in the US. Physicians for a National Healthcare Program has prepared both brief and in-depth summaries covering major features of both bills. PNHP encourages the following activism:

• Check if your House or Senate legislator is already a co-sponsor; if so, thank them for their support and ask them to be even more public in their single-payer advocacy. 
• Send an email  or call your federal legislators at (202) 224-3121asking them to co-sponsor the Medicare for All Act.
• Schedule in-person meetings with your legislators—or their district health policy staffers to emphasize the power of healthcare voters.
• Seek out allied organizations from this list of over 100 organizations that have endorsed Medicare for All to build continued momentum for reform.
• Write an op-ed or letter to the editor supporting the Medicare for All Act.
• Post PNHP graphics on social media.

Break up Big Medicine Act: This bipartisan bill was introduced to address rampant consolidation in the health care industry that drives up prices, squashes competition, and fuels corporate greed.

Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act: More than 80 percent of doctors are now employed by corporate entities. Modeled on the landmark Oregon law that physicians have already used to successfully challenge corporate takeovers, this federal act  would ban corporations and private equity from owning physicians. 

Take Back Our Hospitals Act: This bill would effectively ban private equity ownership of hospitals and nursing homes by making them ineligible to receive Medicare funding.

PBM Reform Act: H.R. 4317 addresses pharmacy benefit manager practices.

In April 2026, the Center for American Progress published A Patients’ Bill of Rights to Lower Health Care Costs, which argues that effective regulation can reduce costs and better align incentives with consumer needs. Its proposals would limit excessive premium increases, reduce deductibles by addressing excessive hospital prices, curb insurer price gouging, and eliminate and replace prior authorization.

Bottom-Up Illinois State Reforms

States are considering legislative proposals to reduce health care costs, including promoting competition, regulating hospital prices, and expanding access to primary care. Illinois has passed the following bills:

The Illinois Prescription Drug Affordability Act: This law, which was to take effect in January 2026, was designed to regulate pharmacy benefit managers. After a coalition of those managers sued, a federal court ruled the state law conflicts with a federal law and blocked state officials from putting it in place.

Healthcare Protection Expansion Act: This bill expanded access to healthcare services by prohibiting prior authorization for outpatient mental health services and requiring insurance plans to cover travel-related expenses for rural patients needing in-network care.

To address rising healthcare costs and access to care, the General Assembly is currently focusing on:

• Measures to safeguard Medicaid funding, particularly in light of potential federal cuts that could impact coverage for many Illinois residents.
• Enhancing access to reproductive health services, addressing concerns about privacy and autonomy in healthcare decisions.

In the 104th General Assembly, Representative Hoan Huynh introduced IL HB3287, the Illinois Medicare for All Health Care Act, which aims to establish a universal, state-sponsored health insurance program that would provide comprehensive health coverage to all Illinois residents.

In October 2023, the American Economic Liberties Project published a policy guide, Tools To Challenge Big Medicine: A Guide for State Lawmakers.  Model legislation that has been adopted or proposed is included. “Hospitals are subject to state regulation and many aspects of pharmaceutical markets are not preempted by federal law. State antitrust law can specifically target the healthcare sector and states can support healthcare workers and limit predatory investors.”

Action Matters

First, understand that you are taking action as an individual – not as a representative of the League of Women Voters.

US Federal Advocacy

Contact your elected officials to urge them to support legislation that increases healthcare insurance coverage and lowers healthcare costs for Americans.

• Senator Dick Durbin: 202-224-2152 (DC office) or 217-492-4062 (Springfield office)
• Senator Tammy Duckworth: 202-224-2854 (DC office) or 217-528-6124 (Springfield office)
• US Representative: Use this link to Find your U.S. Representative

Here’s a sample federal script, or create your own:

My name is [Name], and I’m a constituent and a healthcare voter [calling/writing] about healthcare affordability. A January 2026 KFF poll found that healthcare costs were the public’s top economic worry across party lines. The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country while having lower life expectancy and fewer primary-care physicians per capita than most peer nations.

I urge you to make healthcare affordability a federal priority by pursuing reforms that lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs, reduce prescription-drug and hospital prices, protect access to coverage, and address healthcare consolidation and administrative costs. Please evaluate both targeted reforms and broader proposals based on their measurable impact on what patients and families actually pay.

I support reforms such as the Medicare for All Act, the Break up Big Medicine Act, the Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act, the Take Back Our Hospitals Act and the PBM Reform Act. Effective regulation can reduce costs and better align incentives with consumer needs. Limiting excessive premium increases, reducing deductibles, curbing insurer price gouging, and eliminating and replacing prior authorization can reduce the calamitous burden of high health costs on American families and small businesses.

Illinois State Advocacy

Contact your state lawmakers to urge them to co-sponsor the Illinois Medicare for All Act and use the model state legislation in Tools to Challenge Big Medicine to introduce healthcare access and affordability bills in the 2027 legislative session, which begins January 13th with a prefiling date of December 3, 2026.

Here’s a sample Illinois script, or create your own:

My name is [Name], and I’m a constituent and healthcare voter calling about healthcare affordability. The United States spends more on healthcare per capita than any other country, yet Americans experience higher costs, weaker access, and poorer health outcomes than people in many peer nations. To make healthcare more affordable and protect patients in Illinois,  I’m asking you to co-sponsor the Illinois Medicare for All Act and to examine the model legislation highlighted in the American Economic Liberties Project policy guide, Tools To Challenge Big Medicine: A Guide for State Lawmakers.  

Specifically, please consider:

• Strengthening oversight of hospital and healthcare mergers to preserve competition and prevent consolidation from driving up prices.
• Protecting independent medical practices and limiting corporate or private-equity control when it threatens patient care.
• Controlling prescription-drug prices.
• Requiring meaningful price transparency so patients can compare costs before receiving care.
• Protecting healthcare workers and patient care from cost-cutting that compromises quality.
• Exploring a public health insurance option to expand affordable coverage and increase competition.

States have significant authority over hospitals, healthcare markets, professional practice, and state antitrust enforcement. What specific legislation will you support to lower healthcare costs, increase competition, and put patients—not corporate consolidation—at the center of our healthcare system?

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