This paper will examine how Citizen Action (CA), a national organization formed in 1979 that promoted progressive action through a network of state and local chapters, sought to promote a “new populist movement” and its fight for national health policy in the 1980s. CA leadership focused on building coalitions and fostering trust across a sweeping range of interests, from labor to small business owners, from veteran political organizers to newly engaged citizens. The orienting philosophy of direct action prized grassroots activism, emphasizing personal engagement with issues down to the individual level. The development of "the canvass" as a key development in grassroots organizing highlighted the importance of on-the-ground voter information, contrasted against the rise of direct mail campaigns mobilized by industry interests. The tensions between the priorities of the national staff and the local chapters are explored as CA grappled with broader national shifts in political alignments and its own aims as an activist organization during the conservative Reagan era.

As an intersection of consumer and health rights activism, CA provides an especially rich example of the kind of grassroots voices overlooked in institutional-level accounts of health care reform. Ultimately, CA's efforts to leverage the power of a broad coalition in national health policy were overwhelmed by the fragmenting pull of local chapters and discrete interest groups. CA's activities in health care reform throughout the 1980s demonstrate the promise and limitations of attempts to harness such disparate coalitions in service to CA's goals as a citizen organizing movement.