Opinion: Entertainers, AARP and others agree to push healthcare

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The drive to make healthcare a top presidential campaign issue for the next year is going Hollywood.

Two leading nonprofit entertainment organizations -- the Entertainment Industry Foundation and the Motion Picture and Television Fund -- have joined a growing coalition of advocates for older Americans and business and labor groups to put pressure on presidential candidates of both parties to address the need for more affordable healthcare and retirement security.

The developing coalition known as Divided We Fail includes AARP, the Service Employees International Union, the Business Roundtable -- which represents chief executives of major companies -- and the National Federation of Independent Businesses. They intend to sponsor candidate forums, mount ads and otherwise try to spotlight health and retirement issues.

The entertainment groups this week joined the coalition of strange bedfellows and helped produce a public service announcement that features an all-star lineup of Ben Affleck, Garth Brooks, Dakota Fanning, Morgan Freeman, Eva Mendes, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Piven and Reese Witherspoon.

You can see the group’s first commercial by clicking here.

-- Andrew Malcolm