On June 6, Organizing for America (OFA), the organization formed to continue the grassroots activism of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, will launch an effort to promote the President’s plan for national health reform.

Achieving major reform of the United States’ health care system is one of Obama’s top policy goals and the OFA campaign represents his most ambitious post-election attempt to leverage the widespread network of supporters that helped him win the presidential race.

The organization has set up a separate page at its website titled Organizing for Health Care where the three overarching principles of the president’s health reform plan are listed:

• Reduce Costs — Rising health care costs are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals and families and they must be brought under control
• Guarantee Choice — Americans must have the freedom to keep whatever doctor and health care plan they have, or to select a new doctor or health care plan if they choose
• Ensure Affordable Care for All — All Americans must have quality and affordable health care

“We want to demonstrate wide support for our health care principles,” said Mitch Stewart, OFA’s director, at a conference sponsored by the Democratic National Committee in late May, during which Obama addressed the organization’s members via a sky call from Air Force One.

The President told OFA members the forthcoming promotional drive would be “our big chance to prove that the movement that started during the [presidential] campaign isn’t over. . . . We’ve gotten a lot of things done, but health care, that’s a big push. . . . The election in November, that didn’t bring about change. That just gave us an opportunity for change” (“Obama Tries to Rally Grass Roots for Health Care Fight,” The Atlantic, May 28).

He also expressed a sense of urgency, telling his listeners, “If we don’t get it done this year, we’re not going to get it done,” and saying that “businesses and families are just getting hammered every day” due to health care costs, which he described as the greatest fiscal threat to America’s long-term health.

A report released on June 2 by Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) projects that if Congress does not pass a reform bill, economic growth will suffer and the number of uninsured Americans will almost double in the next three decades. “Health care reform is incredibly important not just for the American people but for the American economy,” said the council’s chair, Christine Romer, in a press briefing (“Obama Aides Say Health-Care Costs Hinder Economy,” Bloomberg, June 2).

The OFA’s June 6 kickoff will feature a series of coordinated house parties across the nation. According to the OFA website, they hope to build support for the President’s plan “one block, one neighbor, one conversation at a time.”