Health/PAC

The Health Policy Advisory Center, or Health/PAC, was established in New York City in 1968, quickly becoming “…an important and formative influence on the health movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s” (Hoffman, p. 160). It grew out of the Institute of Policy Study’s 1967 “Burlage Report” on health policy and New York City’s municipal hospitals, which exposed how private sector “medical empires” benefitted from policies supposedly created in the public sector’s interests. Health/PAC was headed by Robb Burlage, who wrote the “Burlage Report,” and Maxine Kenny, and received funding from the Samuel Rubin Foundation.

Health/PAC, whose staff included a combination of physicians, urban planners, urban health economists and medical students, researched and analyzed the health care system in New York and beyond. It argued for decentralized, community planning and health care facilities and, at different times, worked closely with community groups, doctors and nurses to help bring about change and equity in health care. The organization published its research findings in a variety of pamphlets, brochures and special reports, and two books: The American Health Empire (1971) and Prognosis Negative (1976). Beginning in June 1968, Health/PAC regularly published its newsletter, The Bulletin . In addition, to help spread its message, Health/PAC hosted workshops and seminars, and its staff spoke before activist groups across the United States. An office on the west coast was also opened from 1972 to 1976.

Though Health/PAC got off to a running start, its role as a leading healthcare research and advisory organization was short-lived. A combination of factors contributed to its quick decline beginning in 1977. That year, the Rubin Foundation withdrew its financial support, stating that Health/PAC had received enough seed money. Other sources of revenue were increasingly difficult to obtain. Health policy research had grown in popularity over the decade, making for greater competition both in research opportunities and in obtaining funds. In addition, by the late 1970s, funding priorities had changed; now, “self-help and consumer action groups were ‘getting the grants’” (Hoffman, p. 161). Other, non-financial reasons for its decline included change in the general political climate as well as internal organizational strife regarding what direction Health/PAC work should take. Though the organization essentially ceased to exist, The Bulletin continued to be published with a voluntary editorial board at least into the 1990s.

In the 2000s, Robb Burlage partnered with Rekindling Reform, another health care activist group, in attempt to revive Health/PAC and The Bulletin online.

Bibliography : Burlage, Robb and Robert Padgug, “From the Editors,” HealthPAC online and Rekindling Reform, http://healthpaconline.org/index.htm (accessed on 11/12/2010).

Hoffman, Lily M. The Politics of Knowledge: Activist Movements in Medicine and Planning . Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.