New Universal: National organization pushes for affordable health care for all Americans

Metroland
David King

Albany, NY - 10 July 2008 - In 1994, the famous “Harry and Louise” commercials helped sink Sen. Hillary Clinton’s health-care plan. The TV spots that featured a middle-class couple fretting over the bureaucracy created by Clinton’s proposed health-care plan was sponsored by the Health Insurance Association of America. But now, a coalition of national groups including unions, liberal activists, and health-care organizations called Health Care for America Now hope their ad campaign, launched last week, will instead bolster a movement in America to create a working health-care system for all Americans.

While HCAN wants the effect of their message to be positive, it does not mean their message is without teeth. National spokeswoman Jacki Schechner told The New York Times last week that the message of the commercial is that “you can’t trust the insurance industry to fix the health-care mess.”

On Tuesday, local HCAN supporters led by Citizen Action rallied at the Capitol to announce the local kick-off to HCAN’s campaign. The group is made up of a number of unions, including American Federation of Teachers and SEIU, and health-care organizations, including the Planned Parenthood Organization of America.

Citizen Action New York co-executive director Karen Scharff said that she feels the time has come to create a functioning health-care system in the United States and that she sees more and more citizens and small businesses coming to the same conclusion.

Scharff said that local efforts will include a great deal of lobbying. “Here in New York state and in communities all across the country, we’re asking one question, ‘Which side are you on?’ Are you on the side of quality, affordable health care? Or are you on the side of being left alone to fend for yourself in a complicated, bureaucratic insurance market?”

HCAN plans a public registry to display where representatives stand on the issue. “It’s time for Congress to tell us which side they are on,” said Scharff.

The coalition’s most well-known spokesperson is Elizabeth Edwards, who has had a very public battle with cancer. The wife of two-time presidential candidate John Edwards recently said of HCAN’s mission: “Millions of Americans are sitting around their kitchen table at night, wondering why it is so difficult to afford the basics these days—especially health care. They come from all walks of life, but they have one thing in common: They know our health-care system is broken, and they want a fair, common-sense solution that makes quality coverage affordable for everyone.”

So far HCAN, whose national campaign director is Citizen Action New York co-executive director Richard Kirsch, has spent $1.5 million on national advertising and plans to spend $25 million in the months leading up to the election. HCAN is made up of more than 95 groups nationally and plans to use the contacts and communication networks and lobbying mechanisms the groups have in place to move the discussion about universal health care forward in their areas. Scharff said that the coalition intends to get politicians away from solutions and reforms that rely on existing insurance companies.

“We cannot trust so-called reform proposals that rely more on private insurance, that tax our health benefits at work and force us to get health insurance on our own, proposals that give us a tax credit that pays for a fraction of actual health-care costs, and proposals that don’t regulate health-insurance practices, premiums, or profits,” said Scharff. “We need health-care reform that works for us.”