What We Are

America's health care system is always a work in progress. Every year brings new challenges and new proposed solutions.

In the heat of debate, opinion leaders need an unbiased source of information so they can understand the roots of the nation's health care problems and the trade-offs posed by competing proposals for change. The Alliance for Health Reform (www.allhealth.org) exists to provide that information. We offer a full array of resources and viewpoints, in a number of formats, to elected officials and their staffs, journalists, policy analysts and advocates.

A nonpartisan, nonprofit group, the Alliance does not lobby or take positions on legislation. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia is our founder and honorary chairman. Robert Graham, MD, of the George Washington University and the Aligning Forces for Quality program, is our board chairman. The diverse board includes distinguished leaders from the fields of health care, business, labor and consumer advocacy. Ed Howard, an attorney long active in national health care issues, heads the Alliance's staff.

Since 1991, the Alliance has organized more than 400 forums in Washington and around the nation, each presenting a balance of expert views. We cosponsor an annual bipartisan health policy retreat for members of Congress and a separate one for senior congressional legislative staff dealing with health matters. We consult with reporters, editorial writers and producers across the country on health policy debates in Washington and how they affect local citizens. The Alliance also has published six highly regarded guides for journalists on covering health issues.

Our underlying goal -- from our origin and into the future -- is affordable, quality health care and long-term care for all Americans. The enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 has changed the context and content of our educational offerings for opinion leaders, but not our aim.

We are at the beginning of what promises to be a lengthy period of adjustment to the health reform law, a period that will see continuing delivery system innovation and more vigorous efforts to prevent disease, improve the quality of care and gain greater value for each health care dollar spent. These changes will occur in ways that reflect, and in some cases go beyond, the changes made in the new law. We will continue to pursue our mission during this period by:

• explaining the myriad provisions of the law, and their policy implications;
• examining how various aspects of the law are being carried out, at both federal and state levels;
• tracking how well the law is achieving its objectives in coverage, cost and quality;
• looking at proposed changes in the law, as unintended consequences and "unfinished business" emerge over time;
• exploring new trends and initiatives in prevention; and
• presenting new ideas in care delivery, wherever they are occurring, that are noteworthy for their positive effects on quality, cost-efficiency and health outcomes across the continuum of care and across populations.