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Members of a grassroots advocacy group crossing North Dakota by ambulance say health care in America needs emergency assistance.

North Dakota Change That Works, part of a 12-state organization with a broad progressive agenda, sponsored the ambulance visit and a news conference in Minot Wednesday. Outside the ambulance parked on Main Street, state director Ryan Nagle of Fargo said Congress needs to act on health-care reform soon.

"There's been enough talk on health insurance reform. It's time for action," he said.

According to the statistics compiled by the organization, every week of delay means one North Dakotan dies because of lack of health insurance and 16,653 American families will file for bankruptcy because they can't pay their medical bills. During each day of delay, another 10 North Dakotans lose their health insurance coverage.

"For me, it's a moral issue. It's a justice issue. It's a theological issue," said the Rev. Frank Picard of Minot. "I just don't believe that the insured have moral standing to say to the uninsured wait."

He has seen the turmoil faced by people in Minot whose pre-existing conditions prevent them from getting insurance or who can't afford coverage, he said.

"The fear and anxiety they live with is just horrendous," he said.

Nagle said Change That Works has taken the call for reform to Valley City, Jamestown and Devils Lake. The three-person team traveling with the ambulance will be in Williston and Dickinson today. The organization rented the decommissioned ambulance in Jamestown.

Although the cold weather has limited contact with the public, some good conversations have resulted, Nagle said. The organization has addressed public misconceptions about how reform plans in Congress, he said.

"What we really want to make sure happens is that we have health-care reform that provides affordable care, that provides care to as many Americans as we can and make sure that we have the same quality," he said.

The Campaign for Responsible Health Reform, which opposes the reform bills in Congress, seeks similar goals through a different means, said Dustin Gawrylow, director of the North Dakota Taxpayer Association, a member of the coalition started by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"The plans that are being proposed are not really reform. They are either total replacement of the system or a set of steps that would eventually result in the replacement of the system," he said. "We don't need to scrap our current health-care system. We need to figure out how to expand what's working for most people already to those that it's not working for."

However, Change That Works describes the current health insurance system as broken, noting it will cost the North Dakota economy more than $330 million this year in productivity losses due to the uninsured.

Change That Works reports it has connected with about 1,000 North Dakotans interested in health-care reform. About 400 people are active supporters of the organization.