Getting to a National Yes on Health Care: Can we do the Same for Child Care and Paid Leave?

ECFC and the Raising Child Care Fund hosted a discussion with key players in funding and organizing the movement that led the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the preservation of the ACA through multiple attacks to repeal it.  What was philanthropy’s role?   Can we connect the dots on a broader values-based economic story including child care, paid leave, an economy that works for everyone?   What can funders learn from the health care story to rise to this moment for families?

Speakers:

• Gara LaMarche, President, Democracy Alliance, former President and CEO of the Atlantic Philanthropies, where he led the foundation’s efforts to embrace a social justice framework for grantmaking, and spearheaded the largest-ever grant made by a foundation for an advocacy campaign – over $25 million to press for comprehensive health care reform in the U.S.
• Richard Kirsch, Director of Our Story – The Hub for American Narratives, author of Fighting for Our Health: The Epic Battle to Make Health Care a Right in the United States, and former National Campaign Manager for Health Care for America Now (HCAN) from 2008 to 2010, an 1,100 member coalition, led by major progressive organizations, that deployed staff in 44 states and spent $47 million to organize for comprehensive health care reform.
• Margarida Jorge, Executive Director, Health Care for America Now (HCAN) & Health Care for American Now Education Fund (HCANEF), co-founder of the 2008 campaign and chief architect of the 47 state field program that helped win the Affordable Care Act.
• (Moderator) Barbara Chow, Director, Education – Heising-Simons Foundation