Keep Our Care Act Resource Center

Support the Keep Our Care Act and safeguard community access to quality affordable care.

Consolidations between health care entities like hospitals, hospital systems, provider organizations and others are prolific across the country and in Washington State. These consolidations have been shown to negatively impact cost, quality, and access to necessary health care services. Yet in Washington, these health entity consolidations receive minimal oversight, allowing large health care systems to dictate patients’ access to care, including reproductive, end-of-life, and gender-affirming care. 

Every Washingtonian deserves access to affordable, quality health care regardless of their identity, zip code, or medical needs.

What would the Keep Our Care Act Do?

The Keep Our Care Act would ensure health entity mergers, acquisitions, and contracting affiliations improve rather than harm access to affordable quality care within a community. The bill:
  • Prohibits health entity consolidations that diminish access to affordable quality care;
  • Requires Attorney General oversight and enforcement to ensure health entity consolidations do not negatively impact access to health care services;
  • Includes a health equity assessment so that health entity consolidations address the needs of marginalized communities;
  • Ensures community input through public notification of proposed consolidations and the opportunity for public hearings and comment.


Why is the Keep Our Care Act Needed?

  • Mergers and consolidations drive up costs for patients. 
  • Mergers and consolidations do not improve the quality of care.
  • Washington has seen recent consolidations restrict access to critical health care services, including reproductive
    and end-of-life care. Consolidations can also result in restrictions and barriers in access to gender affirming care. These barriers and restrictions are discriminatory and unsafe.
  • Oversight is needed to hold big health systems accountable. Large health systems in our state sit on billions of dollars in cash reserves and investments and receive our tax-payer money but face little accountability to the communities they serve.
  • Uninsured and underinsured individuals are disproportionately harmed when health systems do not prioritize community needs.
  • Mergers and consolidations can exacerbate systemic inequities. Lack of market competition, combined with private health systems’ efforts to increase revenues by attracting more patients with private insurance, has been found to lead to worsening health care access for Medicaid patients — who are disproportionately people of color.
  • Rural communities deserve better, as the high costs, limited services, and lack of alternative care sites associated with consolidations create insurmountable barriers to care for people in rural communities.
Bottom line: Every Washingtonian deserves access to affordable, quality health care regardless of their identity, zip
code, or medical needs.
 


Social Media Messages 
  • Everyone deserves access to affordable, quality healthcare regardless of their identity, zip code, or medical needs. Support the #KeepOurCareAct here: aclu-wa.org/KOCA #WAleg
  • The #KeepOurCareAct would hold health entity mergers accountable for providing affordable, quality care within WA. aclu-wa.org/KOCA #WAleg
  • Every patient should have access to the care they need, including reproductive, end-of-life, and gender-affirming care. #KeepOurCareAct #WAleg aclu-wa.org/KOCA
Hashtags 
#KeepOurCareAct, #KOCA, #WAleg