Millions Pour into Universal Coverage Ad Campaign

The presidential election is over, but the campaigning certainly isn't.

Politico reported Nov. 12 that groups eager to see universal health care in America are spending tens of millions and dispatching armies of people to further their cause. At the top of the list: labor unions and the AARP.

According to Politico: "'For 100 years, we’ve been trying to enact universal health care coverage, and we’ve failed,' said Dennis Rivera, chairman of SEIU Health Care, which represents the union’s 1.2 million health care workers."

“We intend to run this as a presidential race, and our candidate is comprehensive health care reform in the United States,” Rivera said.

Politico's Martin Kady II and Chris Frates reported on local organizing efforts, TV ad campaigns and Capitol Hill lobbying by the groups. 

"[W]hile he wouldn’t provide a figure, Rivera said the organization plans to break its previous spending records to get the job done," Kady and Frates wrote.

Part of the massive mobilization includes thousands of people working on behalf of the union. 

"In January, the Service Employees International Union, an early backer of President-elect Barack Obama, will deploy thousands of volunteers and paid staff throughout the country, hoping to top the 5,000 people it enlisted to work for him during the campaign."

One of the coalitions mentioned in the article, Health Care for America Now, lists a host of liberal organizations as members on its Web site, including:

ACORN, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Americans United for Change, Campaign for America’s Future, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Campaign for Community Change, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, MoveOn.org, National Council of La Raza, National Education Association, National Women’s Law Center, Service Employees International Union, United Food and Commercial Workers, and USAction.

Health Care for America Now is straightforward with its advocacy of government-run care. Its Web site states : "Our government’s responsibility is to guarantee quality affordable health care for everyone in America and it must play a central role in regulating, financing, and providing health coverage ..."

The SEIU and AARP are members of another coalition, Divided We Fail, which also has engaged the National Federation of Independent Business and the Business Roundtable in championing comprehensive health reform. That group includes Girl Scouts of the USA, the Human Rights Campaign, and the American Psychological Association, to name a few. The Divided We Fail platform is a vague call for "affordable health care" for all.