"Progressive groups push public plan"

Chris Frates (Politico):

Billing it as their largest health reform campaign ever, progressive leaders are planning to spend at least $82 million to push reforms that include a public health insurance plan option.

The campaign, expected to be announced Monday, is designed to put public plan opponents on notice that supporters are ready for a fight.

“We know that the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry and conservative opponents to reform have huge piggy banks filled with money they plan to use to counter real health care reform, and we plan to fight back and fight for what we want,” said Jacki Schechner, a spokeswoman for Health Care for America Now, a coalition pushing for the public plan.

The substantial investment by 11 progressive groups is funding a nationwide push that includes organizing grass-roots supporters and paid advertising, phone banks and direct mail.

The coalition plans to bring at least 5,000 people to Washington on June 25 to make more than 300 lobbying visits. And in mid-June, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean plans to deliver hundreds of thousands of signatures to Congress, demanding that lawmakers pass a public plan.

“We’re drawing a line in the sand that any legislation passed has to include a public plan,” said Mary Rickles, a spokesman for Dean’s Democracy for America. “Americans deserve to choose between a public option and for-profit insurance companies.”

The $82 million will be spent by Health Care for America Now, the Children’s Defense Fund, MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, USAction, Campaign for Community Change, Rock the Vote, Campaign for America’s Future, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the Service Employees International Union.

Together, they represent more than 30 million people.

The announcement is timed to kick off America’s Future Now, a combination strategy session and pep rally that’s expected to draw thousands of progressives to Washington for a three-day conference.

The entire month of June is anticipated to be pivotal for the health care reform debate. Congress is expected to begin work on legislation, and the lobbying that has been relentless for months will take on a new urgency as bills begin to move.

Progressives will be working to persuade Democrats to push legislation quickly and pressure the Senate not to compromise key principles to win more Republican support. Much of the lobbying work will be in Democrats’ home districts, said Roger Hickey, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future, a progressive strategy group that organized this week’s conference.

“They want this election to have mattered. They want to make something happen after years of opposition,” he said. “We’re about building a political majority around economic change.”

And, he said, much of that work begins with health care reform.