Power in Action

Mobilizing Communities for a Health System That Puts People First  

In the face of growing threats to health care access, reproductive freedom, and community well-being, our commitment to advancing health justice is stronger than ever. We are mobilizing to protect the progress we’ve made and continue fighting for a health system that serves everyone. 

We know that opponents of health justice, from corporate interests to extremist politicians, will spend endless resources and exert tremendous power to keep the status quo—often focused on short-term gains at the expense of long-term community health and well-being. To make progress while setting the stage for bold policy that will ensure health is a right for all, we must build an even stronger, united movement for health justice that is rooted in race equity—one that bridges local, state, and national efforts. 

While we cannot match corporate interests dollar for dollar, we can out-organize them. Our power lies in collective action, and with your support and engagement, we can continue building a future where national, state, and local political and policy wins truly serve the needs of every community—and that starts by centering the people harmed most while supporting transformative solutions for tomorrow.  

Together, we can hold politicians accountable, defend against attacks on our freedoms, and push for the transformative change our health system needs. A health system that is built by and accountable to all people. 

That’s exactly what the Community Catalyst Action Fund is all about.

Who We Are 

Community Catalyst Action Fund, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization, works to ensure policymakers and health systems are accountable to all people. 

We believe if we can build the power of the movement for health justice and harness community-driven ideas for structural health system change, we can hold policymakers and health systems accountable to our vision for a health system rooted in race equity and health justice.  

We believe everyone deserves a health system focused on their well-being—whether that means access to affordable preventive care or alleviating medical debt. Too often, profit drives decisions, with devastating effects on families and communities. We are working to tip the balance so that people’s health, not corporate profits, is the guiding principle of our health system. 

Our opposition—from corporate interests to extremist politicians—is deeply invested in preserving the status quo, which disproportionately harms LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, women, immigrants, and communities of color due to racism, classism, and other forms of oppression. Together, with a growing movement of multi-issue partners and advocates, we’re creating a movement that cannot be ignored, organizing and mobilizing to demand change.   

Our Story 

Since its founding, Community Catalyst has fought to protect and expand Medicaid, in our effort to ensure that everyone—regardless of income or work status—has access to the care they need. As new threats emerge, we are doubling down on our efforts to defend these hard-won gains.  

In 1998, Community Catalyst was founded on a core belief: people, not health care companies, should be at the center of decisions about our health system. Since then, the organization has partnered with over 300 organizations across the country to drive significant improvements in health care access and outcomes for millions. 

Community Catalyst played a pivotal role in the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), building a national movement for health reform. Its network of community leaders helped secure the law’s success in 2010, expanding access to health care for millions of people. 

In 2011, we launched the Community Catalyst Action Fund to protect and expand these gains, particularly focusing on defending Medicaid expansion in the face of growing opposition. We’ve worked tirelessly to safeguard the ACA, helping to expand Medicaid to millions and fending off more than 60 attempts to repeal the ACA. 

Yet, threats to health justice persist.

Recently, we’ve seen: 

  • Efforts to cut Medicaid and impose burdensome reporting requirements on families and workers with low-incomes
  • Harmful anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy that restrict immigrants’ access to essential health services, forcing many to delay or forgo needed care  
  • Coordinated attacks on reproductive freedom—targeting abortion, birth control, and gender-affirming care—that make essential care inaccessible and unaffordable
  • Insufficient enforcement of laws requiring non-profit hospitals to provide charity care and community benefits in exchange for tax exemptions 
  • Unchecked private equity infiltration in health care, driving up patient costs and leading to poor patient health outcomes

These are all part of a broader strategy to strip away essential health care, which will disproportionately harm systemically excluded communities, including Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander communities, and LGBTQ+ people, older adults, women, immigrants, and people with disabilities. 

We are building a movement to fight back—in statehouses, Congress, and the courts—while critical connections across health justice, economic justice, reproductive justice, and democracy reform movements. 

Our Approach 

At Community Catalyst Action Fund, we’re building the power of people to create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice, recognizing that true health justice is impossible without addressing the racial inequities that permeate our current system. 

We strengthen the health justice and advocacy movement to achieve community-led political and policy wins that put people over profit. The intersection of health and economic justice is at the heart of our work. From tackling the medical debt crisis to exposing the role of private equity in driving up health care costs, we are working to shift the narrative and drive policies that put people over profits. 

Together with a growing network of partners and advocates, we are educating, organizing, and mobilizing around health justice policies and priorities at every level of government.

Our approach has three key components

  • Strengthen Advocacy and Drive Policy Change: We are building a coordinated, national infrastructure capable of running cutting-edge advocacy campaigns. These campaigns aim for immediate policy wins while laying the foundation for long-term, systemic changes that advance race equity and health justice.
  • Cross-Movement Collaboration: We are committed to cross-movement collaboration—across immigrant rights, economic opportunity, reproductive justice, and more—to dismantle the systems that perpetuate health inequities. Together, we can build a movement that puts people over profit and centers the voices of those most impacted.
  • Elect Champions for Health Justice: In partnership with local 501(c)(4) organizations, we are supporting candidates at all levels who will champion health justice, ensuring communities have the representation they want and deserve. 

For more than 25 years, Community Catalyst has been at the forefront of policy efforts that deliver results and build collective power. Together with the Community Catalyst Action Fund, we are laying the groundwork for a united, powerful movement to achieve transformative policy change at every level of government.

The Urgency of the Moment 

Now more than ever, mobilizing a grassroots movement is essential to challenge the entrenched interests that prioritize profits over people. By organizing communities and driving narrative change, we can reshape public perception, hold policymakers accountable, and demand transformative change within our health system. 

Mobilizing a grassroots movement is essential to advancing bold policy changes that challenge entrenched corporate interests and political opponents who seek to maintain the status quo. Grassroots movements empower ordinary people to vote, come together, and demand bold systemic change that prioritize public health and community well-being over profit. When communities are organized at the local, state, and national levels, we amplify our collective voice, holding policymakers accountable and pushing for transformative change. 

Project 2025 and similar initiatives underscore the urgency of this mobilization. As seen with efforts to dismantle Medicaid, the ACA, and reproductive rights, powerful interest groups are strategically undermining policies that protect the most vulnerable. Without grassroots organizing, these efforts could roll back decades of progress in health equity, civil rights, and public accountability.

A grassroots health justice movement can build momentum for bold, intersectional policy by: 

  • Engaging communities who are most affected by harmful policies, ensuring their voices are at the forefront of the fight.
  • Leveraging local and state-level influence to achieve policy victories that ripple outward, eventually shaping national policy.
  • Creating sustained pressure on elected officials to pass legislation that reflects community needs and values, not corporate profits.

By organizing communities and focusing on race equity and health justice, grassroots movements can transform policies to better serve the public and promote a more equitable, inclusive health system.

Donate

Now is the time for bold action. Whether through organizing, donating, or advocating in your community, your involvement can help us defend health justice against those seeking to dismantle critical protections.

Our Work at a Glance 

  • Convening health and economic justice partners and watchdog organizations to spotlight the harms of unchecked private equity growth in health care, through coordinated, multi-issue policy, advocacy and public education campaigns.
  • Elevating local and state policy priorities to the federal level, driving solutions to tackle the root causes of America’s medical debt crisis through partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and public opinion research. Though bipartisan policy solutions, we’re elevating the urgent need for action to reign in the high costs of care, while putting more protections in place for people.
  • Defending Medicaid from threats like burdensome reporting requirements that make work a barrier to health access, while working to enhance protections and coverage for immigrant communities. By centering race-class narratives, we expose how policies like Medicaid work requirements disproportionately harm communities of color, due to racism, classism and other forms of oppression that limit economic mobility.
  • Collaborating with reproductive and economic justice organizations to expose how profit-driven health practices harm reproductive care and to advance community-led solutions. By connecting health justice with reproductive and economic justice, we are building a movement that reflects shared values of dignity, equity, and community-led solutions. 

Building on these efforts, we are now focused on defending against new threats to health care access under the current political landscape, making progress where we can, and setting the stage for bolder, long-term change. 

We deserve a health system that ensures everyone gets the care they need and is treated with dignity and respect. We won’t stop until everyone has what they need to be healthy, and our health system is shaped by and accountable to all people.