Major Ad Campaign Aimed at Achieving Health Care Reform

CHW Urges Elected Officials and Health Care Industry Leaders to Deliver Meaningful Reform; Ads Highlight CHW's Focus on Innovation and Cost Control as Part of the Solution for a Health Care System in Crisis

San Francisco, CA - June 15, 2009 - Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) today launched a major advertising campaign aimed at driving the United States towards an unprecedented and comprehensive reform of the nation's health care system. The ad campaign highlights CHW's commitment to improving health care through innovation and focuses on how those innovations can help lower costs.

"The campaign includes a series of video messages from CHW President/CEO Lloyd Dean that urges America's leaders to pass health care reform legislation this year. "In the past, special interests helped defeat reform in this country. Everyone knows that it is easy to stop reform. We're active in this debate because we want a more just health system," said Dean. "At CHW, we are serious about our commitment to health care reform and we have developed innovative ways to expand access, improve quality, and control health care costs."

"The total cost of health care has become prohibitive and is a problem that must be solved. Let's face it," said Dean, "the status quo in our health care system is not sustainable. We need a fundamental overhaul, and the people of CHW are committed to changing our system for the better."

CHW launched the campaign in tandem with a new website: www.chwHealth.org/reform, which focuses on real life solutions the organization is implementing every day.

CHW is a national leader in advocating for health care reform. In 2007 and 2008, CHW launched its first series of advertisements advocating for health care reform in California. The organization also convened leaders in business, academia, health care, labor, religion, and research for a think-tank style, invitation-only discussion designed to generate new ideas for reforming the U.S. health care system. The Healthcare Leadership Summit was moderated by Leon Panetta, who was then the director of the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy.

And in March 2009, CHW released the findings from its annual Health Security Index™, based on a nationwide survey of more than 1,150 adults. The survey found that despite the ailing economy, more people in the U.S. are worried about rising health care costs (67%) than are worried about losing their jobs (37%). The survey also found that for the first time, a majority of U.S. adults (51%) believe the nation's health care system is getting worse.

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