Healthcare Bill of Rights

Statement of Principles: Healthcare Is a Human Right

Every person in Pennsylvania has the right to timely, affordable, high-quality healthcare. Healthcare exists to meet human needs, not to generate profits for corporations. Healthcare is a public good. As such, our healthcare system needs to guarantee rights for patients, healthcare workers and communities, and needs to meet basic standards and values.

1. Patient Rights

a. Access to Care – Coverage Is CareHealth insurance is how people access care. When coverage is taken away, people delay treatment, get sicker, and die sooner. Protecting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act protects lives.

b. Patients and Residents Have the Right to Safe, Quality Care Every patient and long-term-care resident has the right to care delivered with sufficient time, staff, and professional judgment to ensure safety. No one should be harmed because care was rushed, understaffed, or under-resourced.

c. Safe Staffing Is a Patient Right Patients and residents have the right to care from healthcare workers who are not overloaded, exhausted, or stretched beyond safe limits. Safe staffing saves lives.

d. Care Must Be Based on Need, Not Ability to Pay No person should be denied, delayed, or downgraded in care because of insurance, income, disability, or age. Medical and functional needs must come first.

 e. Disability Rights Are Healthcare Rights People with disabilities and chronic conditions have the right to dignity, autonomy, accessibility, and community-based care. Healthcare must respect independence, consent, and self-determination.

2. Community Rights

a. Communities Have the Right to Strong Local Care Systems Hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and home-care agencies exist to serve their communities, not private equity firms or corporate chains. Healthcare infrastructure is a public good.

b. Public Dollars Must Serve Public Health Medicare, Medicaid, and state healthcare dollars must be spent on patient care, staffing, accessibility, and community health, not excessive executive pay or profit extraction. Insurance companies must be held accountable for operating in the public good, not based on rationing care or denials of care.

c. Rural and Safety-Net Hospitals Must Be Protected No community should lose its hospital or clinic because of funding cuts or corporate extraction. Rural and safety-net providers deserve stability and support.

3. Healthcare Worker Rights

a. Safe Staffing Is a Healthcare Worker’s Right Healthcare workers have the right to assignments and working conditions that enable them to provide appropriate care in accordance with accepted standards of care. Excessive workloads and understaffing lead to negative outcomes, burnout, and moral injury of healthcare workers.

b. Healthcare Workers Have the Right to Safe, Dignified Work Nurses, doctors, aides, therapists, and support staff have the right to safe workplaces, protection from violence, and humane working conditions. Safe workers mean safe patients.

c. Healthcare Workers Have the Right to Organize and Advocate Healthcare workers have the fundamental right to join together, form unions or professional associations, and speak collectively for patient safety, ethical care, and fair treatment. Workers’ voices protect patients.

d. Collective Representation Is a Public Good When healthcare workers have a strong collective voice, care is safer, turnover is lower, and quality improves across hospitals, long-term care, and home-based services.

e. Union-Busting Endangers Patient Safety Intimidating workers, blocking organizing, or retaliating against those who speak up undermines care and puts patients and residents at risk. Silencing caregivers is a public health failure.

4. Standards and Values

a. Healthcare Must Be Governed by Evidence-Based Science, Ethics, and Professional JudgmentClinical standards, staffing levels, and care decisions must be based on evidence and ethics, not corporate spreadsheets or investor returns.

b. Patients and Workers Have the Right to TransparencyThe public has the right to know who owns healthcare institutions, how public money is spent, how staffing is set, and how care decisions are made.Healthcare must operate in the open.

c. Technology Must Serve People, Not Replace ThemPatients and caregivers have the right to know when AI is being used and to be protected from unsafe, biased, or unaccountable technology. AI must support — not override — clinical judgment and patient rights.

d. A Stable Healthcare System Is a Public ResponsibilityThe government has a duty to keep hospitals open, units staffed, and care accessible. A healthcare system allowed to collapse is a political choice.

e. A Just Healthcare System Requires Shared Power Healthcare must be accountable to the people who receive care and the people who provide it. Democracy in healthcare is patient safety.

Based on the above, we therefore make the following demands of our public officials, institutions and those responsible for holding the public’s trust:

Elected officials:

• Restore and solidify Enhanced ACA Premium Subsidies

• Restore cuts to Medicaid passed by Congress in June of 2025

• Oppose any further changes to the current system that are in opposition to any of the above principles

• Identify and fix the systemic issues in our healthcare system to make a just, sustainable system moving forward in accordance with the above principles

Healthcare institutions (pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and healthcare providers): 

•  Adhere to the principles above in the delivery of care, provision of services, allocation of resources, and management of staff

These are the shared demands of thousands of healthcare workers, patients, and community members who are deeply committed to building the union and community power necessary to make our vision a reality.