JustHealth

JustHealth's mission is to create a just healthcare system. 

We work to accomplish this by:

1. Educating the public about the current state of the healthcare system;
2. Taking action to protect consumers and providers from dangerous, deceptive, dishonest, unfair or unlawful acts and practices;
3. Proposing and supporting legislation and regulations that will foster a just healthcare system; and
4. Being an advocate for consumers and providers in every available forum.

Without fundamental system change, the health care problems people face will only increase and worsen. The problems with our health care system are beyond repairing one-abuse-at-a-time. However, without providing services to enough individuals (one-abuse-at-a-time), adequately documenting their journeys and enlisting their support to pull aside the veil covering the true terror of our current system, we will never create the political will necessary to change it.
 
State agencies and programs (e.g., the California Department of Managed Health Care, the Medi-Cal Fraud and Abuse Program, etc.) attempt to address some of the systemic injustices, while non-profit organizations are applying specific approaches to specific problems (e.g., the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP), Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Health Rights Hotline, California Health Advocates, etc.).  Despite these efforts, the problems continue to grow and multiply.    
 
JustHealth draws on its experience and expertise in using a multitude of strategies (e.g., policy and media advocacy, Hotline assistance, litigation, regulation, and legislation, as well as direct advocacy) to assist individuals, both consumers and providers, and move us towards fundamental system change.  For example, we: assisted California policymakers in developing The California Insurance Fair Claims Practices Regulations; filed the Managed Care/Health Insurer Honesty & Accountability Act; developed an effective Hotline to respond to individual complaints; have worked extensively with print and television journalists; filed Amicus Briefs in State and Federal Courts in support of consumer rights; and acted as an organizational plaintiff in cases affecting the rights of large numbers of health care consumers and providers*

(*Insurance companies are not providers. They do not provide any healthcare good or service. They are simply middlemen.) 
 
Nevertheless, each year, with no advertising program, JustHealth receives an increasing number of referrals, hotline calls, and web-based requests for assistance from throughout California and the rest of the U.S.  The Medical Board of California has designated JustHealth as the entity whose jurisdiction encompasses assisting consumers with problems they have with hospital billings and other issues, and regularly refers consumers to JustHealth.  In addition to this unfunded mandate, the numerous other federal and state agencies, the American, California and local Medical Associations, other professional organizations, numerous media organizations, and individuals and their friends and families who we have assisted, send JustHealth a steady stream of referrals.  JustHealth's burgeoning client list itself is evidence of the nightmare that has become our healthcare system.

JustHealth works to solve the problems that sicken and kill increasing numbers of Americans each year - and to create a just healthcare system.

Join us and support us in this work.

It cannot succeed without YOU!