On January 22nd, unions, advocacy groups, and community organizations met for a city-wide “Forum to Save Our Healthcare” in Philadelphia, bringing together healthcare workers, patient advocates, and allied organizations to stand united in defense of access to care. Because when we fight together, we win.
Our goal for the forum: Everyone leaves with three things – a shared understanding of what’s coming, a clearer sense of what’s at stake for their communities, and a first step we can take together: Sign our Healthcare Bill of Rights!
UNDERSTANDING THE
MOMENT WE'RE IN
PHAN’s Analysis of a Healthcare System
Under Strain
PHAN (the Pennsylvania Health Access Network) has been sounding the alarm for months, gathering critical data and warning us about the serious headwinds facing healthcare today. Here, they help us contextualize the cuts we’re facing and will help us understand the moment we’re in.
OUR MISSION
The headwinds in health care are coming swift and strong.
Congress failed to restore enhanced premium subsidies for insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace (Pennie) by the December 31st deadline. When people can no longer afford health insurance, they don’t stop getting sick—they stop seeking care. ER wait times lengthen, patients show up sicker, and healthcare for all Pennsylvanians suffers.
At the same time, deep cuts to Medicaid are looming. This isn’t a distant or abstract threat—it’s a crisis that’s already taking shape.
Bedside caregivers are seeing the warning signs every day as patients delay care, services disappear, and health outcomes worsen. Health advocacy organizations are watching their members struggle to access essential care. And churches and community leaders are sounding the alarm, fearful for the most vulnerable people in their communities.
The time to act is now.
This is the moment to raise our voices, organize, and fight back—for our patients, for our coworkers, and for our communities. We will not stand by while reckless cuts destabilize care and put patients and caregivers at risk. We will push back—loudly and relentlessly—against policies that would trigger a healthcare crisis across Pennsylvania and the nation.
GALLERY FROM JANUARY 22, 2026 FORUM
HEALTHCARE IN CRISIS
Imagine the risks of pulling billions of dollars out of an already strained system.
You won’t have to imagine it – because that’s what we’re doing. Even before these proposed cuts, our healthcare system was and is already under enormous strain. Hospitals are closing services. Entire facilities are disappearing. Care is being consolidated farther and farther away from the people who need it most. Preventive care is harder to access, which means people show up sicker — and later — when there are fewer resources to help them. We know that people will die due to lack of access to care.
Hospital financing is already fragile. The funds are finite — and too often, how those resources are used is not aligned with patient care or workforce stability. We know what happens when large healthcare corporations operate without meaningful accountability: Services are cut, staffing is reduced, and communities lose access to care.
Now imagine pulling billions of dollars out of that already-strained system.
That doesn’t just mean inconvenience. It means fewer services. Fewer staff. Longer waits. Worse outcomes. And yes — more people dying.
This isn’t a political abstraction. This is a moral issue.
THE CRISIS IS HERE
On Monday, March 16th, POWER Interfaith – Pennsylvania’s largest multiracial, multifaith, multigenerational organization fighting for racial and economic justice, a healthy planet, and a stronger democracy – held a press conference on Philadelphia’s alarming affordability crisis and their comprehensive assessment of where things stand in 2026. PASNAP President Maureen May spoke about how federal-level cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage are already pushing working families to the brink, increasing the strain on our hospitals and caregivers, and leaving too many Philadelphians without access to life-saving care.
“Thank you, POWER Interfaith, for organizing this event and for calling attention to a cascade of federal decisions, made far from City Hall and our surrounding communities, that are making Philadelphians more vulnerable. That are increasing our day-to-day struggles. And that are magnifying challenges we already face here in Philadelphia.
You’ve called it a coming storm. In our hospitals, at the bedside, I can tell you, the crisis is already here.
My name is Maureen May. I’ve been a nurse for more than 40 years, most of them right up Broad Street at Temple. I am the president of PASNAP, which represents more than 11,000 frontline healthcare workers across the state, including nurses and techs at Temple University Hospital and at Wills Eye Hospital, and nurses at both Jefferson Einstein and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.
As caregivers, we understand something very basic about human life: People need a few fundamental things to live with dignity. They need food. They need shelter. And they need healthcare. When any one of those basic needs becomes unstable or unaffordable, the consequences ripple through every part of a person’s life.
My colleagues and I have seen—and are seeing—what federal cuts to Medicaid, Medicaid Expansion, and Affordable Care Act tax credits are doing to Philadelphians who are already struggling to meet those basic needs. We see it in the patients who delay care because they’re worried about the bill. We see it in the parents who bring their child to the emergency room only when things have become unbearable. We see it in people managing chronic illnesses—diabetes, heart disease, asthma—who lose coverage or can’t afford their medications and end up back in the hospital sicker than before.
According to POWER’s Excellent Philadelphia Affordability Report 2026, researchers at Georgetown University estimate that 31.3% of Philadelphians are covered by Medicaid. That’s about 500,000 residents in all. It means that around 65,000 Philadelphians will likely lose their health insurance due to federal-level cuts to Medicaid. When coverage disappears, illness doesn’t. The need for care doesn’t. The only thing that changes is that people arrive later, under more stress, in worse condition, and with fewer options. And that puts enormous strain on everyone. On our hospitals. On the healthcare workers who staff them. And on Philadelphians in every neighborhood and corner of the city.
When federal decisions push more people out of coverage and deeper into crisis, it doesn’t just affect those individuals. It cascades through the entire healthcare system. Emergency rooms get more crowded. Wait times grow longer. Hospital units become more strained.
And the people who pay the price are our patients. The seniors who rely on stable care. The working families who are doing everything right but still can’t afford rising costs. The children whose health and future depend on timely care.
Philadelphia is a resilient city. Every day, nurses and healthcare workers show up ready to care for anyone who walks through our doors. But resilience shouldn’t be mistaken for unlimited capacity. Our healthcare system can’t absorb endless cuts and still meet the needs of this city.
If we allow decisions made far away to strip coverage from our neighbors, we will see the consequences right here—in our emergency rooms, our hospital wards, and our communities. This is why gatherings like this matter. Because the people closest to the consequences must be the ones raising their voices.
Healthcare workers see what happens when policy becomes reality. We see it in the faces of our patients and their families. And what we see tells us this: Access to healthcare and economic deprivation and uncertainty aren’t abstract issues. They’re not points in a policy debate. They are the difference between stability and crisis. Between prevention and emergency. Between dignity and despair.
When families lose coverage, when costs rise, when supports are cut, it doesn’t just affect someone’s health. It affects whether they can stay in their home. Whether they can keep food on the table. Whether they can keep working and supporting their families.
These federal decisions aren’t happening in a vacuum. They are part of a broader economic crisis that is making it harder for many Philadelphians to secure the most basic foundations of life: food, shelter, and healthcare.
Philadelphians deserve a healthcare system—and an economy—that protects those basic needs and strengthens our communities, not one that pushes more people into vulnerability."