Health Care for America Now and Divided we Fail

There have been some interesting developments in the political front that may be of interest to the group. First, I came across an item in the NY Times about a group that is spending $40 million dollars to promote healthcare reform. It's lead spokesperson is Elizabeth Edwards and it was difficult to figure out what plan the group was actually promoting. I finally found the following (but lost the source):

Groups Seek To Promote Health Care as Campaign Issue
Advocacy groups plan to spend more than $60 million to promote and ask presidential and congressional candidates to support proposals to expand health insurance to all U.S. residents, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. Health Care for America Now, a coalition of labor unions and other organizations that support Democrats, plans to announce a $40 million national ad campaign that calls for access to affordable health care for all residents. The campaign will target important Congressional districts in 45 states and will ask candidates to support proposals that allow U.S. residents to retain their current health insurance, purchase new coverage or enroll in a health plan administered by the government. Richard Kirsch, campaign manager for Health Care for America Now, said, "The whole goal is to create a mandate next year for the president and Congress to enact health care reform that meets our principles."Meanwhile, AARP on behalf of Divided We Fail -- a coalition led by AARP that includes the Business Roundtable, the National Federation of Independent Business and the Service Employees International Union -- plans to spend more than $20 million through Labor Day to promote bipartisan proposals to make health care more affordable. AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond said, "We felt we needed more than policy ideas, but the political will to actually get something done." Neither of the coalitions plans to endorse a presidential candidate, although a number of the groups in Health Care for America Now have endorsed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) or have members serving as his advisers (Kuhnhenn, AP/Houston Chronicle, 7/8).

I think it may be important for us to look into both of these initiatives, since neither the Healthcare for America Now or the Divided We Fail coalition seem to have a specific plan. Also, both have stated that they are not supporting one candidate's plan over another. This may be an entree for our group's plan.
Gil