Contact

Rx for Change: Building People Power for Health Justice

Hosted April 2025

In this webinar, we spoke with organizers and leaders from the Center for Health Progress (CHP) and Healing Capital for a frank and hopeful conversation on the rising tide of healthcare frustration and how people are channeling that anger into transformative, community-led action.

A public demonstration; people are leaning against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan offices, with picket signs. The one in the forefront is a young man wearing a wide brimmed hat holding a yellow sign with dark text that reads "Your greed makes me sick".

Rx for Change: Building People Power for Health Justice

from Rx Foundation’s Power is a Social Determinant of Health series

Session description: As cracks in the U.S. healthcare system continue to widen—from the burden of medical debt to the harmful role of corporate actors—many are asking: What can we do to change this? In this installment of the Rx Foundation’s Power is a Social Determinant of Health series, we were joined by organizers and leaders from the Center for Health Progress (CHP) and Healing Capital for a frank and hopeful conversation on the rising tide of healthcare frustration and how people are channeling that anger into transformative, community-led action.

Together, we explored:

  • A clear power analysis of who benefits and who is harmed in today’s healthcare system.
  • How corporate campaigns like CHP’s Care Not Courts are successfully challenging major health systems.
  • What it means to organize across differences for structural change.
  • Concrete ways philanthropy can show up, fund boldly, and resist compliance in the face of greed.

Watch the Recording

Session Highlights

Corporate power in healthcare is not accidental—it’s by design.
Experts emphasized that hospital systems and insurance corporations are not broken—they work exactly as designed: to generate profit, not prioritize people. Understanding this power structure is essential to organizing effective resistance.
Organizing works when it turns private pain into public power.
The panelists agreed: being angry is understandable, but it’s not enough. What changes systems is organizing—bringing people together to act strategically around shared values and goals. It’s not about being the smartest in the room; it’s about building collective power.
We must shift who has control over narratives and resources.
From hospital land use to community research to nonprofit capital, many tools traditionally in the hands of institutions must be reclaimed by communities. As Sonia Sarkar said, “We must disrupt how capital, storytelling, and power are distributed.”
Headshot of Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick with a quote from the RX Foundation power session, "We must be willing to embrace solutions that respond directly to community feedback even if it sounds foreign, risky and non-academic. People want relatable messaging. This builds trusts which can increase engagement and close care gaps.
Campaigns like Care Not Courts show what’s possible.
CHP’s Care Not Courts campaign was cited as a blueprint for organizing that challenges corporate systems while centering impacted people. Through base-building, leadership development, and direct action, they’ve already shifted policy and public discourse.
Building across differences is a strategic necessity.
Panelists affirmed that we cannot win this work in silos. Real power requires organizing across race, class, geography, and identity—something the Center for Health Progress and its community partners model through their cross-issue, multi-racial coalition work.
Philanthropy must fund beyond compliance and comfort.
Several speakers challenged funders directly: if you’re only funding what feels safe or neutral, you’re maintaining the status quo. Fund the organizations and leaders taking bold risks, naming corporate harm, and organizing toward systemic change.

Speakers

Green Arrows

Connect With Us on Social Media

Follow-us on social media for the most up-to-date news, resources, and events from the Rx Foundation and its partners.