Burrows' story is one of hundreds from Alaskans amassed by Organizing for America, a group formed by President Obama's campaign network to put a human face on the health-care debate. In the coming months, the group will have rallies and events all over Alaska. It will be recruiting volunteers to do things like clean trails and work at the Food Bank, to knock on doors and write letters to the editor. And it will be gathering stories from Alaskans about their experiences with health care.

Organizing for America is working nationwide to spark grassroots support for a health-care reform bill that Obama says he wants to sign in August.

The group hopes it can tap into the frustration Alaskans have with the health-care system. It's a system that in 2005 cost the state over $5 billion. By 2013 that number will likely double.

Nearly 33 percent of Alaska's population -- about 200,000 residents -- was uninsured at some point in 2008, one of the highest rates in the country. And what is available is some of the most expensive coverage in the country. Between 2000 and 2007, insurance premiums in Alaska rose more than 74 percent, while wages grew 13 percent. At the same time, profits at 10 of the country's largest publicly traded health-insurance firms rose 428 percent, from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

At an Anchorage press conference announcing the group's health-care reform kickoff, Jonathan Teeters, who is the Alaska director, and Alaska Democratic Party Chairwoman Patti Higgins were as short on specifics about what reforms would entail as Obama has been.

Teeters did say the president is fighting for a public option, whereby government would compete with private insurance to provide coverage for those who can't now get it. However, it's unclear if the bill, which is getting the most attention in the Senate Finance Committee, will include that option.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she would vote against a public option if it is modeled on Medicare. "We don't want to just load people into a system that is broken," Murkowski said last week. In Anchorage, she said, already only 13 of 75 primary care doctors surveyed were willing to take new Medicare patients. (Rita Hatch, from the Older Persons Action network, says that in her surveys only one medical outpatient facility, Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center, takes new Medicare patients.)

Many Republicans are worried that a public option will compete too heavily with private insurance, running the insurers out of business. They say that free-market competition is the only way to fix health care.

Until now, states have been largely responsible for regulating and policing the health-care industry, and Alaska has some of the least restrictive regulations on health insurers. Alaska, in fact, is dominated by two insurance companies that control over 96 percent of the market. Premera Blue Cross insures about 60 percent of the market, while Aetna insures more than 30 percent.

David Balto, former policy director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission, warned of the dangers of such a concentration in testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee. He said that competition is a "vital component to assuring the competitive marketplace is protecting the ability of consumers to choose between alternatives. This unprecedented level of concentration and the lack of antitrust enforcement pose serious policy and health care concerns."

What Organizing for American lacks in specifics it makes up with in personal stories. The group has been gathering accounts from Americans' experiences with the health-care system for months, using the more than 13 million email addresses Obama gathered during the election. Alaskans have submitted over 200 stories and comments on health care, all posted on Organizing for America's website. There, you'll read stories about bankruptcy, about people losing everything because they got sick. You'll read stories about frustrations with insurance companies that don't want to pay up, and doctors who charge too much. You'll read stories from people who work and from people who can't. You'll sense a lot of frustration, wondering why more can't be done to help.