HOUSTON – The Texas Organizing Project (TOP) publicly launched a new organizing campaign aimed at overhauling healthcare in the state at a press conference Tuesday, Sept. 22, in the heart of Houston’s Medical Center. The statewide campaign is rooted in TOP’s unwavering stance that healthcare is a human right, and that access to quality, affordable healthcare is a racial and economic justice issue.
Fighting for healthcare justice isn’t new to TOP. For over a decade, the group has engaged with over a million Black and Latino Texans across the state on issues including healthcare quality, access, and affordability. The nonprofit has hosted clinics to inform communities about the Affordable Care Act, targeted the over 1 million Texans that fall in the Medicaid expansion gap, championed policies to improve maternal health outcomes for Black women, and secured an expansion of Ben Taub Hospital in Houston earlier this year.
“Yes, we’ve been winning policies to make people’s lives better at the local level, but we know overhauling this system is so much bigger and will require a different kind of fight,” said Brianna Brown, TOP Executive Director during the press conference. “This is why TOP is launching our statewide campaign today – because in every corner of this state, Texans are being hurt by a system that puts corporate profits over our health.”
Earlier in September, TOP and community allies won an expansion of Harris County funds to support people going through a mental health crisis with alternatives to policing – highlighting the intersections between healthcare and other issues that impact Texans’ daily lives.
“How is it that in the year 2026, in the wealthiest and most powerful country, we have a system of healthcare that continues to leave far too many working people in medical debt and without the quality treatments they need?” said Synnachia McQueen, a Houston TOP member who has seen multiple doctors in hopes of treating a foot issue that months later is still undiagnosed. “So that’s why I’m raising my voice with my TOP colleagues here today. Because guess what? If we stay quiet, nothing changes. I’m not about to allow that to happen. I have a foot I need repaired and loved ones to spend time with.”
Joe Bolivar, a San Antonio TOP member who works as a home health provider, yet isn’t eligible for health insurance through his job, added: “Without any form of health insurance, it can be intimidating to go to the doctor for a routine check-up because of the cost. Even if you have insurance and are in need of medication or a procedure, there’s still this lingering uncertainty of, “will my insurance even cover this?””
Texas is home to 5 million uninsured people, the most of any state in the U.S., and with healthcare and affordability on Texans’ minds, TOP’s new campaign asks the question: “How do we improve health outcomes for all Texans – no matter age, race, gender, or where you live?”
Teresa Cox, a Dallas TOP member and health insurance broker who underwent triple bypass heart surgery this year, shared: “We are the patients walking through these hospital doors. We are the policyholders paying the premiums.We are the families buying the prescriptions. We are the workers whose paychecks help finance this healthcare system. This system cannot function without us. And when we understand that, organize around that, and stand together around that, we become a force that cannot simply be ignored.”
Rounding out the slate of press conference speakers, Dr. Audrey Nath, a Houston neurologist and healthcare advocate, stated: “We cannot continue with the status quo; it is killing us. As Americans, we are proud to fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And for there to be life, healthcare must be a right.”
View the livestream and access photos from the event.
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