The Society for Participatory Medicine believes that an effective healthcare system is a collaborative one, where care providers and the patients and families they care for work together toward the best possible health outcomes. The importance of this partnership cannot be overstated; its supporters range from the Institute of Medicine to the World Health Organization, echoing the words of visionary physicians like our movement’s founder “Doc Tom” Ferguson and health data visionary Warner Slack MD, a colleague of SPM founders, who said patients are “the most under-used resource” in the healthcare system.

Anything that restricts families’ access to that system harms healthcare, not to mention children, adults, and elders in their time of need. Preventing this societal harm – by ensuring access to care – was the foundational purpose of the Affordable Care Act … more correctly known, in fact, as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Yet twice opponents of this act have sought to defeat it.

In yesterday’s King v Burwell decision the US Supreme Court has cleared the way for PPACA’s promise to be fully delivered to the American people. SPM applauds this ruling, and looks forward to advancing the national effort to make healthcare affordable, accessible, understandable, and — most importantly — participatory for all Americans.