Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 21, 1993 TAG: 9310210169
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Health coverage must be made available to everyone," Klueh said in her letters. "As an employer, I'm willing to pay for it."
Klueh's appeal was written during a "health action party" sponsored by Families USA, a liberal advocacy group that supports President Clinton's reform efforts.
Today, more than 1,000 such parties will be held across the United States to generate letters and "to make sure the American public - and not just the special interests - are heard by members of Congress," said Families USA director Ron Pollack.
Writing to your member of Congress is hardly a revolutionary act. Yet such exercises in mass democracy have become the weapon of choice in the battle over health-care reform.
Many combatants believe public opinion will not be won by the sound bite or 60-second advertising spot, but by intensive, in-depth examination of the issues through town meetings, community forums and personal encounters.
"This is more than selling a bag of popcorn," says Ronald Ziegler, head of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, which is waging its own grass-roots campaign against the anti-Clinton pharmaceutical manufacturers.
"It's a complex issue," said the one-time advertising executive, who is best known as former President Nixon's combative press secretary. "We don't think you can win by running ads about research cutbacks."
Instead, NACDS and other groups are telling their members: "Get out, get around, talk health-care reform. Urge people to write Congress."
Part of the motivation for a people-oriented campaign is financial. Reform proponents say they cannot match the money flowing from the insurance industry and big drug firms who are hitting the plan big-time.
The Health Insurance Association of America has said it has spent about $8 million thus far attacking the Clinton plan, mostly on two TV ads. By contrast, the Democratic National Committee has said it hopes to raise $3 million ot $5 million to support its entire campaign over the next several months.
"If this process is democratized," Pollack predicted, "it will hasten getting comprehensive reform enacted into law."
So the health action party was conceived to pump up local interest and give voice to the average American.
The focus is a 20-minute film, "People Just Like You," which presents three scenarios of lost health coverage.
"It's happening all over America," says the stern voice-over, "to people just like you."
The message is that special interests have an enormous stake in blocking health care reform.
As envisioned, after a discussion, the participants are supposed to write to their representatives in Congress.
More than 1,200 parties have been confirmed, some of them already held. Klueh attended one arranged by the administrator of a community health center south of Charlottesville, Va.
Mounting this effort took months of organization. Yet, even with the $2-plus cost per video, the tons of printed materials and postage, the tab for the nationwide effort is still costing Families USA well under $100,000, Pollack said.
by CNB