Day One: Lafayette

I must admit, I was a bit surprised by how the day turned out. Watching the news over the weekend gave me the impression that health care reform was paramount in the mind of all Americans. Watching the frightening tales of fights at town hall meetings, a congressman hanged in effigy and getting multiple emails daily from the Democratic listserves I'm signed on to, I drew the conclusion that everyone knew about the substance of the debate and everyone had an opinion about it. I was wrong.

A young woman came up to our booth today to see what we were doing, why we were sitting out in the 95-degree muggy heat. I explain to her that we were concerned about the tone of the national debate on health care and we wanted to impress upon the constituents of Louisiana the importance health reform beyond the public option. That there are many individuals and small businesses that can’t afford health insurance and that the government can help solve this without taking over the health industry.

She didn’t have health insurance and she was vaguely opposed to the public option, but she had never considered the fact that health reform and government-run health care are not synonymous. She got surprisingly excited to sign on to the campaign after I explained that the government could make it easier for small businesses to afford coverage by allowing them to pool their employees, that our own Sen. Mary Landrieu co-sponsored a bill that would incentivize individuals to get coverage with tax deductions, and that these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg.

This was not an isolated incident. Nearly everyone David and I spoke to didn’t really think much of health reform beyond the public option, and even on that subject there was little opinion- and almost everyone we spoke to had no health insurance. I was blown away. These are the very people who should be most vocal in the debate.

But I find this to be as encouraging as it was startling. What we are doing is all the more important precisely because the people most in need of health reform are not engaged. We’ve got a lot of work to do.

On that note, this also means that Obama’s administration and our Congress have a lot of work cut out for them. If what we saw today is a decent cross-section of Louisiana then it’s clear that there is a general lack of knowledge on the issues surrounding health care. That said, how can we expect truly responsible reform without clearly identifying what that reform is to the people that it matters most to: the uninsured.

THIS IS DAVE HERE!

Just to quickly add to Devin's take on the day, I just want to mention that the support for the cause driving the Campaign for Responsible Health Reform was clear-- passers by mentioned their disdain for the current administration's handling of the debate. In fact it seems clear at this point that the arguments going on are less about the substance of the bill but the iron curtain of uncertainty that surrounds it. While there is a lot of criticism of the conservative activists at townhall meetings (most of it deserved), perhaps this could have been avoided if the Obama administration had decided to have an open dialogue with citizens sooner in the process...