Grass-roots groups must test President mettle on health care reform

[RedEarth]

WASHINGTON - As the White House launches its bid to reform health care, the big questions bedeviling the activist base of the Democratic Party are how and when to nudge President Obama to the left on key issues.

The recent three-day conference of the Campaign for America’s Future - an amalgamation of hundreds of unions, advocacy groups, student organizations, liberal think tanks and anti-war organizations whose turnout helped elect Democrats from coast to coast - featured a vow to get behind Obama’s push to reform health care this year.

But the frenetic energy of last year’s conference and about 500 attendees were missing. So was a hoped-for cameo appearance by Obama, who as a candidate dazzled the crowd at past conferences.

Many progressives have concluded correctly that Obama’s penchant for compromise and consensus could lead to a complex, unworkable, hybrid public-private health care proposal that will be an easy target for pharmaceutical industry lobbyists and other entrenched interests to demonize, weaken and possibly kill.

The stakes could not be higher. Tens of millions of Americans lack coverage, and the cost of health care continues to soar by double-digit percentages, causing an estimated half of all personal bankruptcies.

Although polls suggest that a thin majority of Americans would support a single, Medicare-style health insurance plan that covers everybody, Obama is playing it safe politically by going for a hybrid proposal in which those who are happy with their current coverage could keep it without any changes. That option, according to the polls, brings public support to 77%.

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/june/grassroots_groups_m.php

[Cleita]

1. K&R

[cal04]

2. Democrats mount grass-roots effort for health care reform

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/05/democrats.health.care/index.html?section=cnn_latest

As Democrats on Capitol Hill move toward revealing landmark bills to drastically reform the nation's health care system, the White House and the Democratic National Committee are increasing efforts to rally public support.

On Saturday, the DNC's advocacy arm, Organizing for America, is sponsoring thousands of meetings across the country. Organizers say tens of thousands of activists will talk about how to change the system, hear encouragement from President Obama -- in an address on DVD -- and be recruited to engage in other activities throughout the summer called "campaign for health care reform."

"Saturday is the major kickoff. That is just the kickoff of a lot more action that will be happening," said Jeremy Bird, Organizing for America's deputy director. "As people come together, they will be planning on going door to door. They will be planning phone conversations that they will be having. They will be planning additional service events."

In March, the group sponsored a canvassing effort and collected hundreds of thousands of pledges of support for the administration's budget bill. It has also mounted an effort to support the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor.

The health care effort, though, will be the most sustained on a key agenda item for the president.