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ADVOCATES GO DOOR-TO-DOOR ASKING FOR SUPPORT

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:00 PM CDT

Representatives from Working America, an AFL-CIO affiliate, spent the afternoon Tuesday knocking on doors in Pine Bluff seeking support for health care reform legislation being debated in Congress.

Toney Orr (left), with Working America, helps James Dunn place a call to U.S. Rep. Mike Ross and ask him to vote yes for H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, Tuesday afternoon as they canvass neighborhoods. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

The organization brought in seven people from the Little Rock area for the effort, said Willie Holmes of Ohio, who organized Working America’s local canvassing.

“Our target area mostly is working-class moderates but we knock on every door,” Holmes said. “We just want to speak to everybody. We want to try to relay a message of importance and urgency.”

Their main objective: Seeking help in their efforts to convince U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., and other conservative Democrats in Congress called Blue Dogs to support the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act before an August recess.

No ‘no’s’

“I haven’t run into any ‘no’s,’” Holmes said as he walked around an area starting at West 13th Avenue and Peach Street and headed several blocks to the south and west. “Every single person we’ve spoken to has been familiar with the health care debate.”

He and his crew asked local residents to call and leave voice messages at Ross’ Washington, D.C., office.

“Ten minutes ago we found out we already filled up his voicemail,” Holmes said after a couple of hours of canvassing. He said they started calling his Pine Bluff office instead.

A woman who lives on West 16th Avenue was one of those who left a message. She said her husband had recently undergone surgery.

“He didn’t have any insurance so we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to pay for it,” she said, adding, “And I’m a nurse.”

She and others read from a prepared statement, some of them adding their own comments at the end.

A spokesman for Ross said he was in “back-to-back meetings” Tuesday, but sent the following comments via e-mail.

“I am committed to passing health care reform that lowers costs, improves quality of care, makes health insurance affordable for all Americans and requires health insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions,” he said. “At the same time, health care reform must be deficit neutral and cannot add a dime of debt to our federal government.”

Ross went on to say that he does not think the current proposal goes far enough to address costs or rural health care concerns, and that “we need to slow down and get this right.”

“As a leader of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, I have been working in a constructive manner to ensure that we pass a common sense health care reform bill that the American people want and deserve,” he said. “And, I am demanding that every member of Congress have time to read the bill and every amendment before we vote on them.”

Holmes said his group also was trying to make sure people have the facts.

“We’re not out here trying to sell anything,” he said. “It’s about us educating people.”

Working America’s effort was mirrored at the local ACORN office by representatives from the Arkansas chapter of Health Care for America Now.

HCAN stated in a news release that the group is particularly concerned that reform — in whatever version it may come — make health care “truly affordable.”

“While the majority of Democratic members of Congress are fighting to make health care reform affordable for families and businesses, they face opposition from all the Republicans and a minority of Blue Dog Democrats,” HCAN said. “Right now, some Blue Dogs are threatening to make health care more expensive instead of placing a surcharge on the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers — families who earn more than $350,000 a year.”

Ross said the problem can’t be solved by “simply pouring money into a broken system.

“We must take steps to hold health care costs to the rate of inflation or we will never balance our federal budget again, and health insurance will continue to become less and less affordable for working families,” he said.

Ross added that Congress is making progress but still has “a long way to go.”

“I will continue fighting for provisions that protect the small businesses, rural committees and working families in Arkansas’ Fourth Congressional District.”

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