About
Affordable Healthcare for NEPA
We are a coalition of community members, nurses, caregivers and other workers who are holding big insurance and healthcare corporations accountable so everyone has access to affordable care.
Working people have been hit hard by rising healthcare costs, along with inflation for gas, groceries, housing, utilities, childcare and everything else. While our neighbors have been struggling, executives at insurance and healthcare corporations have been raking in huge profits and getting filthy rich.
To protect the health and economic security of everyone throughout Northeast PA, we are demanding an immediate freeze on healthcare costs. That means insurance corporations shouldn’t raise their costs, health systems shouldn’t raise their prices, and employers shouldn’t make workers pay more for their benefits. Insurance and healthcare corporations have more than enough resources to provide urgently-needed relief by not raising out-of-pocket costs for the people of NEPA.
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Working people are struggling to afford healthcare
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80% of NEPA/North Central PA residents are worried about affording healthcare.
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53% of NEPA/North Central PA residents have gone without care due to cost.
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33% of NEPA/North Central PA residents have incurred medical debt, depleted savings, and/or sacrificed basic needs due to medical bills.
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Along with healthcare, the overall cost of living has exploded, with inflation growing 25% since 2021.
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While insurance premiums skyrocketed by 223% from 2000-2020, wages only grew 15% from 1979-2022.
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Nationally, workers now pay an average of $6,850 out of pocket for their family healthcare premiums annually.
Rising healthcare costs are being driven by a relentless focus on profits and consolidation
PROFITS
Entity | Revenue | Profit | Cash & Investments | Net Assets | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Geisinger* | $9 billion | $47 million | $4.1 billion | $4.8 billion | |
Risant* | $12.6 billion | n/a | n/a | n/a | |
Kaiser | $127 billion | $9.3 billion | $72.6 billion | $82 billion | |
Highmark | $29.4 billion | $50 million | $11.7 billion | $9.8 billion | |
UPMC | $33.6 billion | $643 million | $9.2 billion | $11.1 billion |
*Geisinger figures are also counted within Risant financials; Risant figures are also counted within Kaiser.
Executive compensation
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When the CEO of Geisinger transitioned to become the CEO of parent corporation Risant, he had total compensation of over $14.2 million in 2024.
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The CEO of Geisinger-Risant’s national parent corporation, Kaiser Permanente, had total compensation of over $12.9 million in 2024.
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The CEO of UPMC had total compensation in excess of $11 million in 2024.
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The CEO of UnitedHealth was compensated $26.3 million in 2024.
Consolidation
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Studies prove that unchecked consolidation of health systems without accountability leads to higher prices for healthcare.
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In recent years, mergers by giant health systems in NEPA such as Geisinger-Risant and Jefferson Health have dramatically increased their market power to raise prices.
OUR SOLUTION
Freeze NEPA Healthcare Costs!
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Working people cannot keep paying more for healthcare as the costs of everything else keep going up and our paychecks do not keep up.
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Insurance and healthcare corporations have more than enough profits and cash reserves to freeze prices while we advocate for long-term solutions to fix our broken system, including the reinstatement of ACA tax credits and Medicaid funding.
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Kaiser should utilize its $82 billion net worth to invest in NEPA through Geisinger-Risant and freeze health insurance costs, which would make good on its commitment to invest at least $2 billion locally.
