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For All the People: A Century of Citizen Action in Health Care Reform 

Doctors in from of a medical insrument

Health Sciences Library | Fall 2023
Exhibition by the National Library of Medicine

Health care reform has been a contentious political issue in the United States for more than a hundred years. Even after the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which expanded access to health insurance coverage for millions of people, Americans continue to disagree on whether and how to make quality health care available to all.  From the beginning of the 20th century to today, citizens have made their voices heard in these debates. Health care reform is usually associated with presi dents and national leaders, but this exhibition tells the lesser-known story of how movements of ordinary people helped shape the changing American health care system.