People want to advocate for healthcare policy changes, but need to be invited and given a place to start

A quarter of adults with a chronic health condition have advocated for healthcare policy changes in the past year.

A recent national poll from the PAN Foundation’s Center for Patient Research finds that over the past 12 months, 1 in 4 (24 percent) adults with any chronic health condition have advocated for policy, legislation, and/or regulation to improve access to healthcare. Among those, most people (61 percent) report advocating to support the needs of others.

Among the 76 percent who did not participate in healthcare advocacy over the past 12 months, the following reasons were cited:

• Not being asked (25 percent)
• Uncertainty about where to start (25 percent)
• Not knowing how to get involved (22 percent)

Types of activities varied among those who advocated, including engaging on social media (50 percent), visiting or contacting state/local representatives (34 percent), attending a local town hall (29 percent), and participating in an online grassroots advocacy campaign (29 percent).

Many adults focused their advocacy efforts on broad healthcare issues including Medicare (44 percent), Medicaid (41 percent), high cost of healthcare (33 percent), Social Security benefits (32 percent), and mental or behavioral health (32 percent).

Among adults participating in advocacy, almost half reported that key benefits were raising awareness of particular healthcare issues in their community (48 percent) and encouraging others to get involved in advocacy (44 percent).

“This recent polling reinforces the critical role patient advocates can play in improving healthcare access, while also highlighting what leading healthcare advocacy organizations, like PAN, should do to better equip people with the resources and information needed to participate,” said Amy Niles, Chief Mission Officer at the PAN Foundation. “We’re committed to amplifying patient voices around key policies that improve access to care. This year alone, we’ve activated more than 4,000 patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and others to send over 12,000 messages to their Congressional members related to key healthcare access and affordability issues. And we will continue this important work because we know that together, we can improve healthcare access, affordability, and equity for all.”

Resources

• PAN’s policy priorities 
• How to advocate with us  
• PAN’s Advocacy Action Center 
• Share your experience with healthcare policies 

Polling methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States between July 31 – August 4, 2025, among 2,066 adults (aged 18 and over), including 1,274 who self-report having been diagnosed with any chronic condition, by The Harris Poll on behalf of PAN Foundation via its Harris On Demand omnibus product.

Data were weighted where necessary by age, gender, race/ethnicity, region, education, marital status, household size, household income, [employment], and political party affiliation, to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ± 2.5 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to other multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including, but not limited to coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments.

About the PAN Foundation 

As a leading charitable foundation and healthcare advocacy organization, the PAN Foundation is dedicated to accelerating access to treatment for those who need it most and empowering patients on their healthcare journeys. We provide critical financial assistance for treatment costs, advocate for policy solutions that expand access to care, and deliver education on complex topics—all driven by our belief that everyone deserves access to affordable, equitable healthcare.

Since 2004, our financial assistance programs have helped more than 1.3 million people to start or stay on life-changing treatment. In addition, we’ve achieved major policy victories that increase access to care, mobilized patient advocates to call for change, and educated people nationwide on critical healthcare-related topics. We’re committed to working towards a future where equitable health outcomes are a reality for all. To learn more, visit panfoundation.org.