Who We Are

The Healthcare Is a Human Right movement is anchored in state-based grassroots campaigns, which build the power to achieve real change, one state at a time. As we change state policy, we will create a domino effect of healthcare wins across the country, until we are strong enough to realize the vision of a national universal healthcare system that is publicly financed and meets the health care needs of every person in the United States.

Put People First! Pennsylvania

Put People First! Pennsylvania is a membership organization of poor and working people who are organizing across race, geographies, and other divisions to advance human rights across the state. PPF-PA was founded in 2012 and began its HCHR campaign in 2013.

Southern Maine Workers’ Center

The Southern Maine Workers’ Center is committed to building the collective power of working-class and low-income people to demand and win a universal, publicly funded health care system in Maine. The Workers’ Center is organizing Mainers to build grassroots power and change what’s politically possible.

Vermont Workers’ Center

The Vermont Workers’ Center launched its Healthcare Is a Human Right campaign in 2008. Thousands of people came together from across the state and developed the HCHR campaign model to change what was considered politically possible in healthcare reform. In 2011, the campaign won passage of Act 48, the first law of its kind in the country, which committed the state to moving toward a universal, publicly financed healthcare system.

Act 48 was a huge step forward, yet federal regulations required Vermont to delay the transition to universal healthcare until 2017, and politicians have not yet agreed a public financing plan for the new system. The HCHR campaign is continuing to organize for the full implementation of the law, specifically by calling for equitable public financing.

Partners for Dignity & Rights

Partners for Dignity & Rights (formerly called NESRI), works with grassroots partners to build broad movements for economic & social rights, including health, housing, education and work with dignity. Based on the principle that fundamental human needs create human rights obligations on the part of government and the private sector, we advocate for public policies that guarantee the universal and equitable fulfillment of these rights in the United States. We have provided strategic campaign support for the Healthcare Is a Human Right movement since 2008.