Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Anthony Wright

68. Anthony Wright

Health Access California executive director Anthony Wright has spent most of his professional life working to gain more people access to quality health care, and his fingerprints can usually be found on any progressive healthcare-related legislation that emerges from the Capitol. In a country as stratified as this one on that issue, it is almost always an uphill battle. Which is what makes his last few years even more impressive. Wright finally saw the decade-long push to expand Medi-Cal coverage to people aged 26 to 49, regardless of immigration status, succeed. He helped lead the effort to set up an Office of Health Care Affordability, and he lobbied successfully for affordability assistance that greatly or completely negated larger than normal rate hikes for the 1.7 million policyholders who obtained coverage through Covered California. This year’s budget also includes assurances that the majority of funds raised from the tax penalty for not having coverage goes back into a fund to specifically lower health care coverage costs for consumers. Wright is from the Bronx and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College.

Updated Aug. 15, 2023