It is our intention to include all state committees working toward universal health care (UHC). While there is no agreed upon definition for "universal health care" throughout the political landscape, we in Defend Health Care mean health care insurance and access for everyone. And we will gladly include links to additional groups from additional perspectives also falling within the breadth of our principles.

While we cannot include committees which have no website on this map, we have a standing offer of creating a simple website for any committee in any state working towards universal health care. Please contact our webmaster about this offer. See requirements below.

We DO NOT include incremental approaches, even though these are often termed "universal health care" by the media and the major political parties. In practice, incremental advocates intend stepwise reform, without any plan or date by which they would be reaching the final goal of UHC. This is essentially advocating for the status quo of continuous piecemeal reforms. Such reforms may go on for decades, possibly even while the numbers of uninsured grow. The fact that such reforms might be of some benefit, over the alternative of laissez-faire growth in the number of uninsured does not mean that our efforts should be going in that direction. We would include such work if it had the publicly stated goal and a determined timeline for the achievement of UHC.

We do include committees working specifically toward single-payer and other specific solutions -which are included within our broader principles.



REQUIREMENTS FOR SIMPLE FREE WEBSITE AT defendhealthcare.org
1) Someone in the local group must be willing to serve as the responsible contact party.
2) This individual must have an email address and a telephone with answering machine.
There is no charge for the designing, posting, maintaining, or changing of the site (no charge for anything!).