Related Links

Check out the many diverse groups working toward common purpose. From business to labor, each offers information and resources for the advancement of health care justice and reform.

• AFL-CIO
  Unions of the AFL-CIO are mobilizing a 1-million-member health care mobilization team working with a broad alliance of grassroots organizations to win progressive reform and give millions more union members the information and tools to become active players and health care voters.
  
  
• American Medical Student Assn. (AMSA)
  With a half-century history of medical student activism, is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the US. Student-governed, national organization with 68,000 members committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training.
  
  
• American Nursing Assn.
  Committed to highest standards in nursing and improvements in our health care system.
  
  
• Center for Community Change
  Founded in 1968 to honor the life and values of Robert F. Kennedy, the Center is one of the longest-standing champions for low-income people and communities of color. It works to strengthen, connect and mobilize grassroots groups to enhance their leadership, voice and power.
  
  
• Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP)
  Works fiscal policy issues and issues affecting low- and moderate-income families &individuals. Specializes in research and analysis oriented toward policy decisions that legislators face at both federal and state levels. Examines data and research findings & produces analyses designed to be accessible to public officials, other nonprofit organizations, and the media.
  
  
• Children's Defense Fund (CDF)
  Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.
  
  
• Common Wealth Fund
  National foundation that performs independent research and publishes papers and reports on health and social policy issues. Health policy topics: health insurance and the uninsured, Medicare, Medicaid and other state programs, health care quality improvement, minority health, long-term care, child and adolescent health, managed care, and women's and men's health.
  
  
• Community Catalyst
  Community Catalyst is a national non-profit advocacy organization working to build the consumer and community leadership needed to transform the American health system. We believe that this transformation will happen when consumers are fully engaged and have an organized voice.
  
  
• Divided We Fail
  National consumer alliance between AARP, SEIU & many other organizations working for a national solution.
  
  
• Families USA
  National nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Working at the national, state, and community levels, we have earned a national reputation as an effective voice for health care consumers for over 20 years.
  
  
• Health Care for America Now (HCAN)
  A national grassroots campaign of more than 850 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people dedicated to winning quality, affordable health care we all can count on in 2009.
  
  
• Herndon Alliance
  A nationwide non-partisan coalition of more than 100 minority, faith, labor, advocacy, business, and healthcare provider organizations devoted to strategies and communications for health care reform.
  
  
• Kaiser Family Foundation
  A health care policy clearinghouse on a myriad of topics, including health insurance costs, HIV/AIDS, Medicaid and SCHIP (the State Children's Health Insurance Program), Medicare, minority health, prescription drugs, state health policy, the uninsured, and women's health policy. In addition, the site provides an extensive public opinion tracking service. It is also the parent site of kaisernetwork.org and State Health Facts Online.
  
  
• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI-TN)
  Its members are committed to increasing access to community-based services, including housing and rehabilitation, people with mental illness. Most NAMI members have used up their private funds and insurance and must rely on the public mental health system.
  
  
• National Assn. of Social Workers (NASW-TN)
  Largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with 150,000 members. NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies.
  
  
• Physicians for a National Health Program
  It is a nonprofit organization of 14,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.
  
  
• Public Welfare Foundation
  Health Reform Program seeks to expand effective consumer advocacy for health care, particularly on the state and local levels. Well-informed consumers and skilled advocates can play a major role in creating a health system to which all residents of the US have access and which affords them cost-effective & affordable care of a high quality.
  
  
• Small Business Majority
  A national nonprofit advocacy organization focused on solving the single biggest problem facing America’s 27 million small businesses: affordable and accessible healthcare.
  
  
• Universal Health Care Action Network
  UHCAN is a nationwide network that promotes comprehensive health care for all through education, strategy development and advocacy. Their site has several good links to activist resources.
  
  
• Tennessee Disability Coalition
  The Coalition and its member organizations represent Tennesseans of every age, economic background, political persuasion and disability. Some are disability-specific groups like the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee while others are cross-disability and may focus on specific issues such as independent living, employment, or assistive technology. Each is committed to collaboration toward improving the lives of all Tennesseans who are touched by a disability.
  
  
• Tennessee Justice Center (TJC)
  The Tennessee Justice Center advocates on behalf of poor Tennesseans:
  in areas of public policy having the greatest impact on their health and welfare; by means which afford clients opportunities to make their own voices heard; and in ways which emphasize collaboration across lines of race, class and generation.S upports the work of others engaged in similar advocacy efforts, beyond state boundaries, on behalf of the poor.