Groups join in campaign for Affordable Health Care

Advocates line the steps of the State House to call on politicians to pass health-care legislation. By MATTHEW STONE, Blethen Maine News Service July 9, 2008 Portland Press Herald AUGUSTA — Calling it the first order of business for a new president and Congress, speakers from a collective of advocacy groups launched a campaign on the State House steps Tuesday morning urging politicians in Augusta and Washington to take action on health care. "We're asking one question: Which side are you on?" said Ali Vander Zanden, a health- care organizer with the Maine People's Alliance. Vander Zanden urged politicians to choose between siding with a health-care system that she said supports profits for insurance companies or a system that ensures coverage for all. With sign holders lining the steps behind her, Vander Zanden and others called on state and national leaders to pass health- care legislation. "In our vision, the quality goes up and the price goes down," she said. Laura Harper, director of public policy for the Maine Women's Lobby, said: "We certainly don't intend to wait another 30 years for guarantees of affordable health care. We're tired of waiting." The advocates' announcement on Tuesday was short on specifics. "This is a movement to educate Americans," Vander Zanden said. "We are not campaigning on a specific campaign plan." The campaign launch in Augusta was one of 45 similar events staged across the country, organizers said. "We believe in a choice between public and private insurance plans," Vander Zanden said. "What we want is a uniquely American solution." The Maine People's Alliance and the Maine Women's Lobby collaborated with union leaders, Maine Equal Justice Partners, Engage Maine, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Equality Maine and the Maine Center for Economic Policy to announce the push. China resident Helen Hanson, president of the Maine Direct Care Workers Union, spoke about her struggle to make ends meet while she and her husband purchase their own catastrophic insurance coverage. "Since November 2007, I have had my yearly mammogram and two abdominal ultrasounds," Hanson said, speaking above the hum of public works trucks on State Street. "All of these are out-of-pocket costs to me." Bruce Hodson, president of the Maine State Employees Association, praised Maine's Dirigo Health program, but said the program does not go far enough. "It is up to us to build the political will to find solutions to the high cost of health care," he said. email from Representative David Cotta