‘POWERFUL ADVOCATE’

Ady Barkan, Health Care Activist and ALS Campaigner, Dies at 39

He passed away from complications of his neurodegenerative disease on Wednesday.

Ady Barkan, a health care reform campaigner who became well-known for his advocacy after being diagnosed with ALS, has died. He was 39. His death from complications related to his terminal neurodegenerative condition was confirmed by Be a Hero—the organization he co-founded in 2018 to push for greater health care protections. “Ady was a brilliant strategist, an incisive communicator, and powerful advocate who, while fighting for his own access to health care following his ALS diagnosis in 2016, became a leader in the effort to save the Affordable Care Act so that tens of millions of people in this country could also get the health care they deserve,” the group said in a statement. Barkan’s wife, Rachael, separately confirmed his passing in a post on his X account. “You probably knew Ady as a healthcare activist,” she wrote. “But more importantly he was a wonderful dad and my life partner for 18 years.” Barkan is survived by his wife and their two children.