I spent years in the Arizona Legislature fighting for the people who too often get left out of the conversation — working families living paycheck to paycheck, seniors choosing between medications and rent, parents driving 30 miles because there’s no clinic closer to home. You quickly learn who shows up for those families and who just talks about it. In my experience, few institutions in this state have shown up more consistently than Banner Health.

I say this as someone who spent a career trying to hold health systems accountable to the communities they serve. With hospitals and clinics across Arizona, Banner Health helps power our state’s economy while caring for its people. And what I’ve seen isn’t just talk. It’s a sustained commitment to charity care, community health investment, and safety-net services that don’t always make headlines but make an enormous difference in people’s lives.

That commitment stands out even more today because we’re seeing an unsettling trend across the country. Too many states are placing greater reliance on large national healthcare corporations whose primary obligation is to shareholders, not the communities they serve. Decisions affecting Arizona patients are increasingly being made in distant corporate boardrooms with little connection to the communities they serve. That’s fundamentally different from a locally based, nonprofit health system whose mission is rooted in caring for Arizonans.

Every year, Banner provides millions of dollars in uncompensated and charity care to Arizonans who cannot afford to pay — care that isn’t turned away because someone’s insurance lapsed or they lack coverage. For families one medical emergency away from financial catastrophe, that safety net matters enormously. Few Arizona health systems have built this kind of infrastructure across urban and rural communities alike.

That reach into rural and underserved Arizona is something I care about deeply. I represented communities where the nearest specialist was an hour or more away, where a single hospital closure could devastate an entire region’s access to care. Banner’s reach into harder-to-serve markets — not just the profitable ones — reflects different priorities than corporations focused on quarterly earnings. As a locally based nonprofit, Banner reinvests its resources into patient care, caregivers, new facilities, technology, and community programs—not Wall Street investors.

I also think about the services that rarely get discussed in a boardroom, but change lives: community health screenings, maternal and infant health programs, behavioral health and substance use services, and partnerships with community organizations that meet people before they end up in an emergency room. These are the programs that keep a grandmother out of the ICU, catch illness before it becomes life-threatening, and give struggling parents somewhere to turn before things spiral.

I know skepticism toward large health systems runs deep, and much of it is earned. Accountability matters, and every health system should be expected to earn the public’s trust every day. But recent events around the country have also demonstrated the risks of relying too heavily on large national healthcare companies whose priorities can change overnight. When decisions are made far from the communities they affect, patients, providers, and state leaders are often left scrambling to deal with the consequences. Arizona should never take for granted a nonprofit health system rooted here, employing thousands of Arizonans and investing in the communities it serves. Banner is here for the long-term.

Banner’s local presence creates an impressive level of accountability and community partnership that cannot be replicated from a corporate headquarters in another state.

As someone who has spent a career advocating for working families, I don’t say that lightly. Healthcare decisions should always be driven by what’s best for patients and communities — not by the demands of distant shareholders. Arizona is fortunate to have a locally based, nonprofit health system that continues reinvesting in the people it serves. At a time when so many states are looking outside their borders for healthcare solutions, we should recognize the value of one that has been investing in Arizona all along.

Robert Meza is a former member of the Arizona State Legislature and a longtime community advocate focused on healthcare access and working families.