WASHINGTON - May 19 - "If there is ever a time for public mobilization, this is the time, " Roger Hickey, a Co-Director of the Campaign for America Future, tells TRNN Senior Editor Paul Jay in our latest video. Hickey says that Americans cannot wait for President Barack Obama or the Congress to promote and execute a universal health care plan, especially when the recent Senate hearings on health care reform excluded single-payer heath care advocates.

Hickeys says that "[during] this summer, the legislation is going to be written, the deals are going to be struck, and now is the time for the American people to weigh in" if they do not want the Congress to "cut the heart out of the Obama health care plan."

"The real battle that the American people and everybody listening should weigh in on is whether or not the American reform is going to include the option of a public insurance plan," Hickey says.

As a presidential candidate, Obama pledged accessible health care for all Americans. His campaign website states that he wants "to make health insurance work for people and businesses, not just insurance and drug companies."

However, Hickey urges Americans and public organizations to rally together to demonstrate their support for a public health care program rather than simply relying on Obama's campaign words. "...[We] can sit here and talk about whether Obama's going to weigh in or not. The important thing is that the American people, and organizations like organized labor and civic organizations and consumer organizations, and lots of other groups, women's groups, weigh in and tell the president, 'We support a public insurance option that guarantees high-quality health care for everybody and anybody can choose it,'" he says.


To view the complete video, please click here.