By Mary Kay Clunies-Ross, Executive Director, Chronic Disease Coalition
Dear Friends of the CDC,
On October 27, 10 years ago today, a small group of advocates came together around a simple but powerful idea: that people living with different chronic diseases have common needs, and they deserve a voice in the policies that shape their lives.
What began as a handful of conversations in 2015 has grown into a nationwide movement of more than 10,000 advocates, dozens of partner organizations, and a network of ambassadors in 32 states. Together, we’ve helped bring issues like copay accumulators, prior authorization, step therapy reform, Medigap expansion, and PBM transparency into the national conversation, and in a patient-centered way.
The mission is clearer than ever: to make sure patients are central to the policy decisions that shape their care.
In 2025, that voice was stronger and more unified than ever. The number of letters from patients and staff that we sent DOUBLED from what we did last year. People have an extraordinarily strong appetite to share their experiences with policymakers, and that’s a powerful force. We don’t have a perfect healthcare system, but we’ve made significant progress on access, affordability and representation, and we don’t want to lose it.
It’s a thrill to help patients step into advocacy for the first time—writing to a legislator, joining a call, testifying at a hearing, or simply sharing their story online. Every one of those actions matters. In a time when public debate can be polarized and progress hard to measure, the patient experience is hard to dismiss.
Another essential antidote to rhetoric is personal relationships. By fostering connection between patients, families and their legislators, we hope to contribute to a better political climate that centers on the patient experience.
Certainly that is the hope of our incoming ambassadors. I meet with each ambassador as they join, and we’ve had a record number of new people this year. These conversations are interesting, fun, humbling, and inspiring. They share their diagnostic journeys, how they learned to advocate for themselves with doctors, why they want to advocate with lawmakers, and most importantly, what they want to do with the rest of their lives.
As we look to the next decade, the landscape of healthcare policy is shifting once again. As states prepare for significant changes to Medicaid coverage and other public health programs, it’s more important than ever to center policy decisions on the lives of patients. Not just their current lives, but the future lives they want to live. People want to be healthy and to work, go to school, raise kids, travel, take care of their families and communities, and they want a healthcare system that supports them.
That’s why the Chronic Disease Coalition will continue to be guided by the patients we work with every day. Their stories help us find common ground, identify practical solutions, and keep pushing. We are honored to advocate for them, and to help them advocate for themselves.
To our founders, our board, our partners, our ambassadors, and every patient who has shared their experience—thank you. You’ve built something extraordinary and we are excited to begin our next decade together.
Mary Kay Clunies-Ross