For more than a century, the United States has debated how to make healthcare accessible and affordable for everyone. At APHA 2026, that unfinished question will move to the conference’s main stage.
The American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Expo will bring approximately 11,000 public health professionals and partners to San Antonio from November 1 to 4, 2026, with thousands of scientific presentations covering health policy, prevention, research and community health.
Among the headline sessions is The Quest for Universal Health Coverage, scheduled for November 2 on the Main Stage.
APHA describes universal coverage as a goal U.S. policymakers have pursued for more than 100 years. The session will examine what the next phase of health reform could look like and which policy options might move the country closer to a system where everyone has access to affordable healthcare.
A question that has outlasted generations of reform
The discussion is broader than whether more people should have health insurance.
According to APHA’s program description, the panel will look at universal coverage within a comprehensive health and public health system. That brings questions of affordability, access and healthcare delivery into the same conversation.
The panel includes former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, physician and universal healthcare advocate Claudia Fegan, Harvard health policy specialist John McDonough, CDC Foundation President and CEO Judy Monroe, and Princeton health policy scholar Tsung-Mei Cheng. Journalist Merrill Goozner is scheduled to moderate.
Their backgrounds bring together government administration, medicine, public health and health policy, giving the session several perspectives on what broader coverage could require in practice.
Public health goes beyond medical treatment
The universal coverage discussion also fits the wider theme of APHA 2026, “Together We Thrive: Health Across the Lifespan.”
Public health policy is concerned not only with what happens after someone becomes ill, but also with prevention, access to services and the conditions that affect health over a lifetime.
That makes healthcare coverage especially relevant to the conference. A system may have advanced hospitals and treatments, but those resources have limited impact for people who struggle to access or afford them.
The question facing the Main Stage panel is therefore not simply whether universal coverage is desirable. It is what a workable path toward broader coverage could actually look like in the U.S.
Thousands of studies will arrive in San Antonio
Universal coverage will be only one part of a much larger scientific program.
APHA says journalists covering the meeting will have access to more than 4,000 scientific papers and thousands of oral presentations. Research spans a wide range of public health issues, with findings embargoed until the day they are presented.
The program also includes scientific sessions, a Public Health Film Festival, partner symposia, learning institutes and the Public Health Expo.
But the universal coverage session stands out because the underlying question reaches far beyond the conference hall. More than a century after the debate began, the United States is still asking how a healthcare system can include everyone.
APHA 2026 Annual Meeting & Expo will take place from November 1 to 4 in San Antonio, Texas.
