The screening of American Hospitals: Healing a Broken System at Seattle’s downtown public library prompted a lively discussion moderated by NoHLA’s Deputy Director Emily Brice that included how we can improve hospital accountability, equity, and access to health care. 

To tackle the big business of health care, Government Affairs Director at Washington State Labor Council Sybill Hyppolite said gathering data from different perspectives, patients and workers, is necessary for getting “on the same page about how our dire situation is.”  Hyppolite and other speakers commended the emerging work of Tubman Center for Health and Freedom as being a model for addressing health and wellness both from a clinical and systemic approach.

UW School of Public Health Principal Lecturer Emeritus Aaron Katz who has been working in health policy in Washington state for 45 years describes our current health care system as “a bunch of individual financial fiefdoms and every one of those fiefdoms is working to protect its bottom line and to shift risks to another fiefdom. Until we get rid of all of those fiefdoms that are driven by money, we can’t have a system that works for people, drives towards equity, and gives access to the care that people need, when they need it, for an affordable price.” He pointed to the Universal Health Care Commission created by SB 5399 in 2021 as being critical to making universal health care a reality.

Representative Nicole Macri (D-43rd District) recognized that Washington has a lot to be proud of in regards to its health care system and “there are a lot of things that are working well here, better than in some other parts of the country,” but “the challenge is that we have not really built in strong enough accountability. We need hospitals in every community, but we need to expect more from our hospitals and from health systems generally.” Macri recognized the vital role of the public in the process. “When policymakers start to hear from their constituents that these issues are important instead of only hearing from industry and lobbyists, it totally changes the engagement of policymakers.”  

NoHLA co-sponsored the event with Economic Opportunity Institute, Health Care for All-WA, Health Care is a Human Right-WA, Physicians for a National Health Program-WA, and Washington Community Action Network.