Health Care For America Now gets to work

July 8, 2008

The Health Care For America Now initiative formally kicked off at the National Press Club today, and it sounds like a group with its eyes on the prize.

A consortium of progressive groups, think tanks, trade unions and activists are set to launch a $40 million health care campaign to prepare the ground for the next president to sign expanded care early in 2009.

The work of Health Care For America Now was first made public late last week. But the group, with Elizabeth Edwards as a figurehead, offered expanded insight into the details of its campaign during a meeting on Monday. In addition to spending $40 million — $1.5 million of which will be put behind an initial ad buy (national TV, print, and online) — the group will be sending organizers to 52 cities, blasting out emails to 5 million households, airing spots on MSNBC and CNN and submitting op-eds to major papers (officials hinted at the New York Times piece to come).

In addition, the campaign is going to take advantage of Moveon.org’s massive data files to reach out to like-minded supporters and officials promised to work in Democratic and Republican districts alike.

The group doesn’t have a plan to stick around for a long time, becoming a major institution on the political scene. The strategy seems to be to get started, help pass a healthcare policy in 2009, and then move on.

And as part of its initiative, HCAN will apparently focus a lot of attention on conservative Dems, who might otherwise balk at a universal healthcare program. “We’ll have an organizer in the district of every Blue Dog Democrat,” said HCAN campaign manager Richard Kirsch of the conservative Democrats.

That’s a good strategy. For one thing, the Blue Dogs are going to need to face a lot of pressure. For another, as Yglesias explained, “A big part of the issue with a lot of these Blue Dog types is that they represent areas where there’s little to nothing in the way of real progressive organization on the ground. Anyone representing a district like that is going to wind up listing to the right, especially on key votes where there are potentially large sums of money to be made by doing the wrong thing.”

The group’s first TV ad was unveiled today, as well.

The initial ad buy is $1.5 million. I’ll keep you posted on HCAN’s progress.

Not having an interest group tell you want to do usually doesn’t mean you end up doing the wrong thing. http://www.bluebarking.com

  • Why is HCAN limited to traditional liberal groups? Don’t U.S. businesses have at least as much stake in solving the health care crisis. How much does worker health care add to the cost of a car made in Detroit (if there are any still made in Detroit) versus moving the plant across the border to Canada?

    On a related note, I think Obama ought to come out swinging on this issue because frankly McCain’s position doesn’t make any sense. McCain intends to give private individuals a tax credit for health insurance, while treating employer based health care benefits as income (tax them). This is going to create an incentive for the healthiest individuals to get out of employer based health care. That will drive up the costs for employers, who will then pass the cost on to the employee driving more employees out of the pool.

    McCain’s plan is a poison pill for employer based health care, but without a legitimately affordable alternative for the people who need health care the most.

  • As an RN we have to do something about our nations health care needs as soon as possible. Bush said that people can always go to ERs and that is a place that is suffering under tremendous strains. For example, that poor woman who died on the floor of a NY ER. We can’t put it off any longer and whatever Elizabeth Edwards and her like can do to put this out in the public is commendable.

  • Face it. Without removing the private owners, the ins. profiteers from our health care plan and making them an expanded version of Medicare and Medicaid all else is just how much we are willing to allow private corps to profit from our health care. Nothing will change until we eliminate them totally and their LOBBYISTS who will continue to get the profit back.

    Only a not for profit single payer national healthcare plan will change anything permanently. The rest is just cheap talk.

  • Cute idea, well done.
    They need to make the text larger to work on web/mobile video.

  • McCain’s plan boils down to subsidies for the insurance companies via tax credits for the folks who can afford health care. The folks who can afford health care are the young and healthy (it’s less expensive) and the weatlthy. Imagine a system where some insurance “claims adjuster” dictates your treatment and where the company can deny coverage or drop you completely if you have a catastrophic illness. Sounds like what we have now.

    Where is the Democratic party plan? Obama mentions “universal coverage” every now and again, but so far has stopped far short of calling for a single payer national health care plan. Where is Hillary? I hope Elizabeth Edwards can make a difference. The party needs to understand that single payer health care – known to republicans as socialized medicine -is a good thing. We need no longer fear the insurance industry lobby and their republican friends.

    How come so few comments on this topic? Is it that people are not interested or that we just don’t know what to say?

  • I never heard it said better than this:

    I wouldn’t want my fire department or my police department or my local public school to be operating on a for-profit basis. Why on earth is it OK for health care to be a for-profit business?

    I know HCANs proposal isn’t nationalized but god we need to take some steps in theRIGHT direction on this. More power to em.

  • CH asks why so few comments on this topic. That’s a very good question, but I think I know the answer. I am a single female over 50, just lost my low wage job which had no benefits. Since my divorce several years ago, I’ve had no health insurance. It is not easy for older people to find a job now, especially one that pays a living wage and offers benefits. I have worked for temp agencies for several years, even tried to go back to school, but that didn’t work out. Now I am still without a degree but owe student loans. Sigh…what to do, what to do? Imagine being in your 50s, single, no assets, deeply in debt, without a job or income, worried sick about your present situation, your not so distant future retirement, praying your health will hold because you cannot even afford a doctor appt. This is the reality some of us live. I know it is something that most of you only see in the magazine section of the Sunday paper. And you think, oh, how sad, ya da ya da, well, off to my life now.

    I don’t really blame people for not having too much sympathy. I worked all my adult life, and I imagine I used to take everything for granted as well. I didn’t give a lot of thought to those who had less. But times and circumstances are a lot different now, as most of you who bother to read a forum like this know. People, like myself, who really try, are not criminals or “welfare” types, we are really having a rough time. I feel grateful that I have a roof over my head, some food, and that I can still feed and take care of my cats. Gardens are good for lettuce and tomatoes, even though I live in the northwest and summer has been slow to get here.

    Anyway, I digressed, but answering the question about why so few comments, I believe (based on my own experience) the people around me, neighbors, family, friends…they all have employer based health insurance, or they are married to someone whose plan covers their family, or they are retired on Medicare, or disabled and on Medicaid. I actually only meet uninsured people like myself (who are working) through the temp jobs I work. I think it’s pretty sad and pathetic that this is the way it is in the supposed wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet. Some people I have talked to in a roundabout way blame me and others like me for our lack of health insurance. I don’t understand that at all. So many jobs have been lost, employers are not offering the benefits anymore, it is such a tight job market. How can anyone blame someone who wants to work? It just makes me really sad and depressed about the state of our nation, especially since I am actually living proof of everything that is wrong, that has been wrong for the last 7 plus years.

  • The US really needs a health care plan, as other developed countries have, I wish the people who are working on a plan would consult with Dennis Kucinich, he really is one of our most talented and honest representatives, he also has been working on this subject for many years. I have great respect for Mrs Edwards, I wish she would consult with him.

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