AUGUSTA -- Calling it the first order of business for a new president and Congress, speakers from a collective of advocacy groups launched a campaign on the Statehouse steps Tuesday morning urging politicians in Augusta and Washington, D.C., to take action on health care.

"We're asking one question," said Ali Vander Zanden, a health care organizer with the Maine People's Alliance. "Which side are you on?"

Vander Zanden urged politicians to choose between siding with a health care system that supports profits for insurance companies and a system that ensures coverage for all.

With a cadre of signholders lining the steps behind her, Vander Zanden and others called on state and national leaders to pass health care legislation.

"In our vision, the quality goes up and the price goes down," she said.

"We certainly don't intend to wait another 30 years for guarantees of affordable health care," said Laura Harper, director of public policy for the Maine Women's Lobby. "We're tired of waiting."

The advocates' announcement on Tuesday was short on specifics.

"This is a movement to educate Americans," Vander Zanden said. "We are not campaigning on a specific campaign plan."

The campaign launch in Augusta was one of 45 similar events staged across the country, organizers said.

"We believe in a choice between public and private insurance plans," Vander Zanden said. "What we want is a uniquely American solution."

Given the choice between public and private coverage, Vander Zanden said, she suspected most would opt for government-sponsored coverage.

The Maine People's Alliance and the Maine Women's Lobby collaborated with union leaders, Maine Equal Justice Partners, Engage Maine, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Equality Maine and the Maine Center for Economic Policy to announce the push.

China resident Helen Hanson, president of the Maine Direct Care Workers Union, spoke about her struggle to make ends meet while she and her husband purchase their own catastrophic insurance coverage.

"Since November 2007, I have had my yearly mammogram and two abdominal ultrasounds," Hanson said, speaking above the hum of public works trucks on State Street. "All of these are out-of-pocket costs to me."

Bruce Hodson, president of the Maine State Employees Association, praised Maine's Dirigo Health program, but said it does not go far enough.

"It is up to us to build the political will to find solutions to the high cost of health care," he said.

Although advocates on Tuesday did not specifically outline their plans for a national healthcare system, the Maine People's Alliance has pushed for universal, single-payer healthcare in Maine since the group's inception more than 25 years ago.

A combined public-private coverage program would be better suited to the national level, Vander Zanden said.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com