Reframing the Health Care Debate
The mission of the Archimedes Movement is to create a new space for civic engagement outside of our traditional legislative and governance structures so that we can work on solutions to the common problems we face. We're starting with the crisis in the U.S. health care system.

Our health care system was built around policies and programs put in place during the last century. And while they made sense at the time they were adopted, the economic, demographic and natural environment in which they operate has changed dramatically over the years but these polices and programs have not evolved -- continuing to reflect the realities of the past not the challenges of the future.

And the outdated structure of our health care system is protected within the political process by powerful economic interest deeply invested in the status quo. And maintaining these outdated structures increasingly depends on the unsustainable consumption of financial resources that rightly belong to future generations.

Building A Grassroots Movement
We're discussing the limitations of of the current health care debate and how we change the focus of the debate to include the true causes of the health care crisis, the need to have a shared vision of where we are trying to get to and build grassroots demand for change that cannot be ignored.

Since our founding in January 2006, we have had robust community engagement which resulted in three important documents. (See the "Statement of Intent," "Principles," and "Framework") These documents form the sideboards against which any new system must be compared in order to create sustainable reform at the national level.

At the bottom of this and the next several pages, you'll find a link to continue on with the description of what we're trying to accomplish.

Next: The Challenges of the Current Political Environment