As North Dakota's lawmakers make their way home from Washington, D.C., this week to begin their August recess, the debate over the health care system is likely to follow them.

About 100 people filled Custer Park in Bismarck Monday evening as part of a rally to call on the state's congressional delegation to pass a health care reform bill this year that includes a government-run health insurance option.

The rally was staged by the Change that Works campaign, an interest group affiliated with the Service Employees International Union that is holding events around the country in support of the public option.

State Sen. Tracy Potter, D-Bismarck, attended the rally and spoke in support of the public health care option.

"For 65 years, we've been waiting and tweaking and planning and trying to come up with the best plan," Potter said. "It's time not to let the perfect get in the way of the good. It's time to pass health care now."

The rally comes as Congress begins its August recess to return to their home districts. Lawmakers are likely to confront pressure from both sides of ideological debate over health care reform this month, one of the cornerstones of President Barack Obama's domestic agenda.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., one of six Democratic and Republican senators on the Senate Finance Committee who are negotiating a version of a health care reform bill, has proposed that Congress approve health care cooperatives instead of a public option.

Conrad has said a public option would not have enough support to pass the Senate, a position that has invited criticism from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

"I think the other part of the calculus is what are the American people asking for," said Ryan Nagle, the state director of the Change that Works campaign in North Dakota. "I think while Sen. Conrad says there may not be the votes now, I think it's our job as Americans to speak clearly to what we want to see."

During the Monday rally, members of the Change that Works campaign handed out the office phone numbers of the state's congressional delegation for attendees to call as a way to garner support for a public health care option.

Ginger Fetterman, 46, a hostess from Bismarck, came to the rally to speak in favor of a public health insurance option. She said she and her husband are uninsured and unable to qualify for health insurance at work. Her 17-month-old daughter qualifies for Medicaid.

"It's important to me to be able to have something instead of having to go the emergency room and wonder where I'm going to pay this from." Fetterman said. "Do I buy groceries this week or do I buy medicine?"

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or brian.duggan@bismarcktribune.com.)