Healthcare advocates invigorated by election

The resurgence of health reform as a campaign issue in recent weeks has helped invigorate the advocacy efforts of a union-backed coalition and the seniors’ lobby AARP, activists said at a forum co-sponsored by The Hill Wednesday.

Groups already seeking to direct the presidential and congressional candidates to focus on healthcare issues have also been aided by politicians linking voters’ anxieties about the economy to their worry about their health benefits.

{mosads}“Healthcare was already an issue that people were concerned about but it’s intrinsically linked to the economy,” said Barry Jackson, the online advocacy director for the AARP and the Divided We Fail health reform umbrella group it co-founded with other lobbying and activism organizations.

“I do think that healthcare was obviously a critical issue in the debate and it has been rising, I think, to the level that it deserves,” said Levana Layendecker, the director of online campaigns for Health Care for America Now, a coalition of labor unions and liberal activist groups.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has been hammering away at the healthcare proposals of his rival, Republican nominee John McCain, on the campaign trail as Election Day nears. Sen. Obama (Ill.) and Sen. McCain (Ariz.) attacked each other on their competing proposals during the debates.

Health Care for America Now feels it can claim some of the credit for raising the profile of healthcare during the last presidential debate, Layendecker said.

The group mobilized its extensive email list to pressure CBS News to highlight healthcare issues during the debate between Obama and McCain.

“We felt like we had some level of influence and the political director of CBS [News] gave us a short statement that we were able to go back to our membership on and talk about [how] they influence him,” she said.

Obama has been airing controversial television ads in battleground states charging that McCain would increase taxes on health benefits and cut Medicare in order to cover the cost of his healthcare plan. McCain rejects this criticisms and cautions that Obama’s plan would give the federal government too much say over American’s healthcare.

Health Care for America Now has not endorsed Obama or any Democratic candidates but the labor unions and liberal groups that make up its membership have been working to elect Democrats. The group harshly criticizes the health insurance industry, a traditional GOP ally, and calls for increased regulation of the sector, leaving no doubt as to where its sympathies lie.

The AARP, by contrast, maintains a nonpartisan stance and is part of a coalition called Divided We Fail that includes corporate interests like the Business Roundtable and some of the liberal activists the comprise Health Care for America Now, such as the Service Employees International Union. Nevertheless, its massive grassroots reach and its prolific lobbying give the group considerable sway over Congress and candidates for public office.

Though their approaches are different, both organizations have wide reaches and been stoking grassroots interest in healthcare reform using a variety of means, with a focus on utilizing internet tools such as blogs, mass emails and other means of communication.

As political campaigns branch out into such platforms, those seeking to influence candidates and officeholders have to use the same tactics, said Robin Strongin, president and CEO of Amplify Public Affairs, which co-sponsored the forum. “For advocacy campaigns, we’re really witnessing an evolution in cause campaigning,” Strongin said.

Layendecker, Jackson and Strongin were joined at the forum by Client O’Brien, vice president for nonprofit services at the online activism portal Care2 and Francine McMahon, publisher of The Hill.