CAP works to strengthen public health systems, respond to COVID-19 in equitable and sustainable ways, and improve health care coverage, access and affordability.
A pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic is seen in California. (Getty/Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
Vaccination is key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic and avoiding preventable illness, death, and economic loss. We promote equitable vaccine policy and leveraging governmental and employers’ power to promote vaccination and pandemic recovery.
Strengthening public health infrastructure
The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed inequities and existing weaknesses in the United States’ public health infrastructure. We’re focused on improving health equity by investing in public health, addressing social and economic factors that affect health, and preparing for future health threats.
Improving access to affordable health coverage
We’re dedicated to bolstering affordable, high-quality health coverage options. By building on the Affordable Care Act, closing the Medicaid coverage gap, and innovating progressive solutions, we envision a world in which everyone can access care.
Lowering health care prices and consumer costs
Health care affordability is a top consumer concern, and prices for health care and prescription drugs are inaccessibly high for many. One of our key priorities is improving America’s health by lowering costs to ensure all people can afford to manage their health.
By the Numbers
1.9
Life expectancy fell by 1.9 years in the pandemic—8.5 times more than peer countries.
Woolf, “Effect of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 on life expectancy across populations” (2021).
2x
The U.S. spends 2 times more as peer countries on health, with 8% lower life expectancy.
The United States Can End Hunger and Food Insecurity for Millions of People
Policymakers must reimagine the United States’ long-term approach to food production and distribution to build an equitable and sustainable system that works for all.
Rethinking Guardianship To Protect Disabled People’s Reproductive Rights
Restrictive guardianships deserve increased scrutiny from policymakers in order to ensure that disabled people are not denied their reproductive rights.
While it is critical that Congress works to codify the promise of Roe v. Wade and ensure equitable access to abortion care, the federal government must take what steps it can now under the scope of the Hyde Amendment to increase access to care and protect patients.
Women’s Stories on Economic Justice and Health Care
This CAP Action storybook features women in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire whose stories center on issues from prescription drug pricing and health insurance, to child care and paid leave.
Expanding Access and Protections in States Where Abortion Is Legal
Abortion is protected by state law in more than 20 states, many of which have expanded access to abortion by making it more affordable, codifying state-level reproductive rights, broadening the types of providers able to offer care, and protecting abortion providers and access to clinics.
A Strong Start in Life: How Public Health Policies Affect the Well-Being of Pregnancies and Families
Understanding how the key social determinants of health—including housing, employment, and education—affect perinatal health is critical to ensuring that federal policies support healthy babies and families.
The misclassification of contraception as abortion by anti-abortion lawmakers is an alarming step down a path toward government control over women’s bodies and futures.
Americans Strongly Back Continued Access to Early Abortion Medication
American voters overwhelmingly want to keep the constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade and strongly support legal access to early abortion medication for all women.
Blue states like New York must protect abortion rights
Tymoni Correa-Buntley urges blue states to protect and expand access to abortion care in light of the Supreme Court's draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Public health plays a key role in keeping us all safe and healthy. This video shows how public health works and calls for investment in the nation’s public health system.
Policymakers could make behavioral health care, including mental health services, more affordable and accessible by enforcing network adequacy and parity provisions, lowering patient costs, and making networking with insurers more attractive for providers.
Prescription Drug Reform Is a Women’s Economic Security Issue
Lowering the cost of prescription drugs would ensure that women and their families are able to access needed health care while also bolstering their economic security.
The nursing profession is critical to the health of the country and the economic security of millions of workers. This video shows how the nation can support its nurses.
The COVID-19 pandemic worsened a national shortage of registered nurses, making it increasingly urgent that policymakers invest in higher education, coordinate strategies to alleviate the pressures on the nursing workforce, and make the entire health care system more equitable and stable.
Major investments of federal funding and sustained coordination are needed to mitigate the impact of nursing shortages and improve the nation’s ability to improve the health care system.
2022 State Abortion Bans Are a Patchwork of Increasingly Extreme Laws
As the country awaits the Supreme Court’s final decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, this column highlights the myriad ways in which opponents of abortion are pursuing unprecedented incursions on that fundamental constitutional right.
