Risen from the ashes of the Health Care for Michigan Ballot Campaign is Health Care for America Now phoenix, who, in two short weeks, not only didn’t quit the fight against America’s health care crisis, but took the strategy to a whole new level, too, by launching a $40 million campaign, committed to eliminating America’s health care crisis once and for all. Praise to Michigan health care advocates and their quick turn from ballot drive to full-fledged pressure campaign.

This coalition includes the groups Health Care for Michigan, MichUHCAN, MOSES, Michigan Citizen Action, Progress Michigan, ACORN, AFSCME, Americans United for Change, Campaign for America's Future, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Community Change, MoveOn, NEA, National Women's Law Center, Planned Parenthood, SEIU, UFCW, and USAction.

Many important factors in America’s health care crisis include the inability for many to afford good, quality health care, as well as the millions of American’s who loose coverage because of a preexisting condition. What’s more, the health care crisis in America saps job creation - $1,500 from each car produced in the US alone goes to pay health care costs, putting American manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage, and hampering companies’ ability to create jobs. These costs have gotten so out of control that people now pay more for health care out of pocket than ever before – an average of $2,126, a doubled rate since 1998 – according to the New York Times. All this goes without mentioning that almost 1 million Michiganders alone are currently living without health care coverage, and millions more live in everyday fear of having their coverage stripped without adequate notice.

In the formation of this new coalition, leaders and members alike are expected to take on an untouchable giant that has benefited from the health care crisis for far too long: the insurance industry. For longer than should have been allowed, insurance companies have been continuously driving up health care costs for average Americans and make it harder for people to afford health care coverage on an out-of-pocket basis. They have profited, but people have not.

Bob Dylan once said that the times were a-changing, and this sentiment is certainly as true of America’s ongoing health care crisis as it was of the social scene in the 1960s. We need an American solution to an American problem, and the scrappy warriors from Health Care for America Now are just the ones to bring it for us.