The Challenge
Protect Our Care is an organization dedicated to making high-quality, affordable and equitable health care a right, and not a privilege, for everyone in America. In 2025, Protect Our Care partnered with GPS Influence to launch a public affairs campaign in Missouri that would disseminate a narrative to bolster a defense of Medicaid from unprecedented federal cuts that threatened coverage for over a million Missourians.
Our Role
Our charge was to localize and humanize the policy threat, elevate trusted voices, and generate sustained earned media coverage that framed Medicaid as essential to Missouri’s economy, health care infrastructure, and communities. We also aligned our messaging and strategy with Protect Our Care’s national strategy, which aimed to counteract harmful federal proposals by activating state-based campaigns that delivered real-time political pressure and shaped the public narrative around health care access.
Our Approach
Utilizing first-person narratives from everyday Missourians, our earned media campaign was centered around people-powered press events that tied policy to personal stories. We also deployed the voices of institutional leaders – from Congressional representatives to healthcare leaders – to provide insight and legitimize our explanations of the policy mechanics and their impacts. We then aligned our events with the legislative calendar to create high-impact moments that drove home the real cost of Medicaid cuts to real people.
Results
- Organized four major earned media events featuring members of Congress, state officials, health care experts, and community voices;
- Drafted and distributing tailored press materials for each event;
- Recruited and elevated local storytellers to bring authenticity and urgency to the message;
- Received robust coverage within Missouri, achieving a targeted media campaign that reached all corners of the state.
Outcome
Elevated awareness on a critical policy issue for Medicaid recipients; made complex healthcare policy legible for a broad audience; identified key messaging and messengers that resonated with voters on healthcare topics.
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- Healthcare