Left-leaning groups meeting in Washington Monday said they want reform legislation that "guarantees healthcare for all" this year.
"Progressives are fired up and excited about the possibility of what could be the greatest era of progressive reform since 1960," said Richard Borosage, co-director of one of the groups, the Campaign for America's Future.
Also joining in this collective effort are Health Care for America Now, which represents more than 1,000 organizations with 30 million members; two of the main labor federations--the AFL CIO and Change to Win; and other left-leaning groups, such as MoveOn.org and Democracy for America.
"It is very clear in America that working people want healthcare reform now. They believe that this is the time that the government needs to step up and help them solve this problem," said Anna Burger, chairman of Change To Win. "We cannot fix the economy without fixing healthcare."
These efforts are coming at a time when may workers are concerned about their health insurance--especially losing it. When questioned about their views of "the American dream," pollster Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners found that there has been a shift in defining this dream as seeing it as one of opportunity to one of security.
While having a job that pays enough to support a family was on the top of the list of what the American Dream means (cited by 75% of those interviewed), having "affordable quality healthcare that you can depend on" also ranked high among 65% of those surveyed. Lake's company interviewed 800 nonsupervisory workers by phone in late May.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 46% said they would rate as "10" on an "action agenda for the American dream" a move to "enact healthcare reform to guarantee every American access to quality, affordable healthcare giving the choice of a private plan or a public health insurance plan."
In terms of healthcare, energy and education, 62% of those working said they believe "the time to act" is now on those issues. Surprisingly, a majority (52%) thought that it would be somewhat likely that someone in their family or a close acquaintance will lose their health insurance and/or job in the next year.
As for what changes will occur with healthcare reform, "I think everybody here thinks a public option is essential," said Howard Dean, MD, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and presidential candidate, who is now authoring a book on healthcare reform.
He added that in countries where there are public options, there is also private insurance. "So the idea that the public option is going to wipe out private insurance is historically incorrect," Dean said. "We know public option works. We know administration costs are much, much cheaper than they are in the private sector."
Americans who want to keep their current private insurance will still be able to keep it if a public option in enacted, he said. "The great thing about the president's plan is if you like what you have, you can keep it," Dean said.