Health Care

San Francisco ACORN members celebrate the ordinance providing health care for every resident in September 2006.

Some 45 million people across the U.S. have no health insurance, with many more lacking adequate coverage. ACORN members are working to achieve affordable health care for all. Work is currently underway to get more hospitals to institute “charity care," or free care, programs and discounts. These policies can eliminate or reduce, hospital bills for families with low-and-moderate incomes. They often suffer from being uninsured or underinsured.

ACORN’s campaign to win health care access for low and moderate income families continued in 2006 with a successful effort to pass an ordinance providing health care for every resident of San Francisco. ACORN chapters in San Diego, Calif., and Columbus, Ohio, also helped eliminate more than $700,000 in medical debt and more than $1.2 million in liens for patients unfairly denied reduced-cost “charity care” at local hospitals.