Grass-Roots Groups Gear Up For Health Debate
This weekend, Democrats kicked off what promises to be a massive grass-roots campaign for their health-reform plans. They are organizing community meetings with the millions of e-mail addresses they got during last year's campaign. Republicans are also mobilizing, some with big-dollar ad campaigns like former hospital CEO Rick Scott.
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
Aside from meeting with the Supreme Court nominee this week marks the time when lawmakers are expected to begin thrashing out details of a bill to overhaul health care. And outside the beltway, grassroots campaigns for and against the emerging plan are starting to ramp up.
NPR's Julie Rovner reports on the competing pressure from the sidelines.
(Soundbite of crowd)
JULIE ROVNER: On a beautiful Sunday afternoon about a dozen-and-a-half former Obama campaign volunteers gathered in a dimly-lit coffee house in Silver Spring, Maryland. Together they bent over organizer John Randall's laptop.
Unidentified Man #1: This is as loud as it gets?
Unidentified Man #2: That is unfortunately as loud as it gets.
ROVNER: Eventually they were addressed by a taped video by President Obama, outlining his goals for fixing the heath care system.
President BARACK OBAMA: To get this done, I need your voice to be part of the debate, and it needs to happen now. That's what Organizing for America is all about.
ROVNER: Organizing for America is the repurposed version of Obama for America, the successful grassroots organization that helped get the current president elected. It's now under the auspices of the Democratic National Committee and it's gearing up to get all those volunteers back out on the street, this time to help push through a health care bill.
Mr. JOHN RANDALL (Liaison to Maryland's Eighth Congressional District, Organizing for America): The insurance companies and other interests have their voices on Capitol Hill. But the people's voice is not being represented.
ROVNER: John Randall is the group's liaison for Maryland's Eighth Congressional District. He delivered a message that was going on at meetings like this one across the country this weekend.
Mr. RANDALL: And that's what we're here to do is to organize both our own voices and expand the coverage for you all to get your friends and neighbors, people you know, to be more involved in this.
ROVNER: Meanwhile opponents of what seems to be taking shape in Washington are organizing too. The most visible is a group called Conservatives for Patient's Rights. It's led by Rick Scott who used to head the giant for-profit hospital group, Columbia/HCA. That company is best known for paying one of the largest fraud settlements in the history of the Medicare program. Since stepping down, Scott's been traveling the world gathering horror stories about government run health plans, particularly Canada and England for his advertisements. He's even bought air time for a 30-minute documentary in several markets, including Washington, D.C.
(Soundbite of video)
Unidentified Man: It's not too late. Protect your health care choices. Tell Congress to say no to a government-run plan.
ROVNER: Now government-run health care, the way Canada or England do it, isn't even on the table. But that's not stopping opponents from warning that it's coming. Here's former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich on yesterday's "Face The Nation" on allowing a public plan to compete with private insurance.
Mr. NEWT GINGRICH (Former GOP House Speaker): It's just the first step towards the national health system. They will absolutely use that model to get to and to destroy all the insurance companies and get to a national health system.
ROVNER: But Political Scientist Jonathan Oberlander says that compared to the last effort to remake the health system during the Clinton administration, this time the opposition is much less imposing.
Professor JONATHAN OBERLANDER (Political Scientist, University of North Carolina): Maybe the biggest story in 2009 in health care reform is the absence of organized opposition. At the moment the insurance industry, business groups, provider groups are all vying to be seen as allies of health care reform. And that is a very different picture than 1993.
ROVNER: Of course that could still change as details start to get spelled out which is precisely why the president is spending so much capital trying to get his forces mobilized.
Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
