Obama Launches Major New Online Tool To Reset Health Care Debate

Barack Obama's campaign arm, Organizing for America, released on Tuesday a major new online tool designed to personalize the debate over health care reform and galvanize grassroots support for the president's plan.

The organization, started during the 2008 election, launched a new web page that officials are describing as a "health-care story bank." The site, officially titled "Health Care Stories for America," allows OFA's 13-million member list -- as well as countless others -- to share and find tales of individual health care struggles. Visitors can search for the stories by geography (using an online map), amplify the ones they find compelling through a voting mechanism, and describe experiences of their own. The goal, according to the site, is to illuminate a "common thread in crisis that affects us all."

"These stories -- told by hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans who have watched their premiums rise faster than wages, and spiraling costs shackle American business -- put a personal touch on the health care crisis," reads the page, shown in advance of its release to the Huffington Post.

The new OFA site reflects an amplified effort on the part of the White House and Democrats in general to find more avenues to pursue health care reform's passage. It also comes at a time when progressive activists, in and out of government, have begun pressing the Obama administration to take a more active role in the fight.

The strategy here seems two-fold. The first is to create the type of popular pressure that resonates among elected officials. An OFA official says they are hoping to "find a good story from every district and every state." The second and perhaps more important goal is to elevate gripping narratives of health care struggle that can help re-define the debate -- a counterpoint to the tales of long waits, overbearing bureaucracy, and government interference that conservatives claim will take place under Obama.

Already, the site includes what the aforementioned official said were "hundreds of thousands" of stories culled from its members, both online and during town hall meetings. And by including a feature that allows visitors to tag specific stories they like, the OFA staff believes they can essentially crowd-source the task of finding the most compelling ones.

As for the accuracy of the entries, OFA staff will do independent fact checking for those that are elevated by visitors. The site includes only general locations (not actual addresses) and first names to protect the privacy of the people who share their stories.

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Comments

[anonyms]

The assumption must be, if we drum up enough pity, somehow that will make those that are feeling the pity see things "our" way, agree with us, and "give us what we want". The thinking must be that knowledge drives change. It doesn't require cognitive science to see the error in this strategy altogether.

We don't need more damn stories, people; we need POLITICAL COURAGE and the will to drive this healthcare reform through regardless of whether or not some people are pleased.

Personally, I am sick to death of sob stories. And I don't need to read the stories of others; I have plenty of my own and my family's.

[PatrickforO]

I urge all of you - go to http://stories.barackobama.com/healthcare. Post your own story about our nightmare healthcare system. Search it by city and count the letters in your community. There were 1,000 just in Littleton Colorado where I live. Then...

Write your US Senators and Representatives. Tell them we need a single payer option and put in the link to this website. Be sure to tell them how many letters there are on the site from their constituents and put in the link. If these Senators and Representatives don't get tens of thousands of letters from their constituents, they'll cave in to the insurance industry and the AMA and we will not get healthcare reform!

[USCitizenShareHolder]

Now the GOP says that Health Care Reform is moving to fast and that there needs to be a slow down.

I guess they are saying to sick people or people who may get sick.

Just wait and die because we are going to try to delay health care reform long as possible

That way, my insurance friends can continue to get as rich as possible and pass along some of that money to me.

When you are sick, slow is not an option.

The slower you get treated, the quicker you die.

[zodo]

The corner stone of competent healthcare is good diagnostics. To help pay for his plan Obama has recommended a 95% utilization rate for Medicare reimbursement of Diagnostic Imaging. This would make it all but impossible for outpatient Diagnostic Imaging centers to remain open, and result in thousands of lost jobs. It would force hospitals to try to pick up the slack. This is one of the major ways that healthcare will be rationed and the quality of healthcare seriously downgraded.

[freelyb]

Another chicken bone thrown our way, one that will stick in the throats of small dogs like us.

[plaidsportcoat]

are you kiddin? That's the best they can think of? Do they think Republicans CARE about if you liveordie? You are a poor person. You're life is not worth a dime. You are a lazyignorantdependentscum and you should dieand get out of the way.

[citizensrus]

I'm grateful for the web page. I want to tell my story.

[ComeOnAmerica]

Same here, citizensrus. Maybe all these clooective stories can change the tone deafness of our Congressional "leasders" Looked what happened the last couple of weeks in Montana, with Sen Max getting dumped on by his constituents, and also in New York, wher Ed Schultz had a town hall meeting in Buffalo and people dumped on Schumer. Both Senators are drifting toward our side now. We have to keep the pressure on, keep it strong and keep it ongoing. Just litte things make a difference. At my home two of us make 6 calls to Congress each day and send 6 emails to Congess each day.

[Marcospinelli]

Single payer universal health care will do the following:

1. ALL people in the US will be covered.

2. ALL the paperwork done by the insurance companies (estimated at $350 BILLION) will be eliminated.

3. ALL the doctors will be paid well, on time, and without the chronic hassles they encounter now.

4. ALL the patients will choose any doctors they want.

5. ALL the national health indices will start to creep up.

6. ALL the people will become more relaxed as stress levels will go down.

7. ALL the insurance executives will lose their yachts.

8. Single payer would be a huge boon to free enterprise. (No one is asking friends and family to join a small start up now, are they? )

9. When jobs are disconnected to health care, people will actually feel free to have a job they love. (I go to Canada all the time and see this in action. THIS is why Canadians really love their single payer).

10. You will NEVER get another medical bill in the mail unless it's for your face lift.

[Garybot]

Just because you dream about it, doesn't make it real.

Unfortunately. we will all be subjected to the reality of this farce.

[CJWebber]

Insurance executives won't lose their yachts. The insurance companies won't be going anywhere, they will be insuring the things that basic medical doesn't cover. Like dental and optical.

[JuliaRain]

Exactly.

In Canada, UHC is for basic and fundamental needs. We also have private insurance. Why Americans ignore this, I don't know. Private insurance is extended health care and covers medication costs, massage, acupuncture, dental, glasses, etc. Private insurance is usually provided by the employer or if one is self-employed, they can buy extended private insurance.

Here is an example:

http://www.coverme.com/LH/CoverMe/Corporate/AboutLHMain.jsp?lang=E&province=&MKT=&module=a

[avocats]

And on Christmas Eve, a bearded, red-suited guy will slip down the chimeny and leave us toys and treats. I'd like a bit of whatever you're smoking.

[Marcospinelli]

Here it comes -- The DLC's "What other choice do you have but us?"-threats.

We've been doing it the DLC's way for over 20 years now, and where it's gotten us is debt farther than our eyes can possibly see through all of the toxic pollution that New World Order Corporations have dumped on our lands, in our waters, and released in our air. We are a bankrupted nation that manufactures nothing, with an infant mortality rate that rates below Cuba's. The DLC went along with Republican legislation that deregulated education, industries, environmental safety, financial institutitions, that has led to a destroyed middle class.

The DLC moved the Democratic Party to the right, and made it a haven for moderate Republicans, leaving the Republican Party to evangelical Christians, white separatists, and neocons.

You can't have a democracy without a middle class, and you can't have a world at peace with a uni-party arrangement (Democrepublicans) asserting that the US is an Empire with a divine right of dominion over all other people and countries on the planet.

[Doubledoot]

If the Government is half aa efficient at providing quality health care as they are at denying disability claims the program will be wildly popular ! The Obama Administration seems to desperately seek the middle ground between extreme capitalism and mild socialism when what the people want and need is a much more radical change. Cliche' : when you try to make everyone happy : NO one ends up happy. There are many very large toes to be stepped on here and I don't hear any bones crunching ; do you ? At best the so called "reform" is opening the door to real "reform" which eliminates waste and inefficiency: brings down costs by limitiing physician pay and drug company profits while at the same time promoting & ensuring quality care and medicine (including inovative advances). Somehow these opposites don't seem to mesh. The compromise will leave a bad taste in public craw. Then the Pres. runs around the country apologizing (defending), an inadequate, impotent policy (yet another)>

[Marcospinelli]

In single payer universal health care, the government isn't "providing" health care; the government is the middle man cutting the check.

[plaidsportcoat]

absolutely incorrect. in fact you could say wrong.

[discourse jockey]

Keep up the lies, Marco-corporate-spin-doctor-elli.

[Marcospinelli]

John Adams, 2nd president of the US (1797-1801), after being the 1st vice-president of the US (2 terms, 1789-1797), is regarded as one of the most influential founding fathers of the US.

Adams was the major contributor to the US Constitution, having previously written the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the oldest working constitution in the world http://www.mass.gov/legis/const.htmm):

Article VII. Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happpiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men: Therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require it.

The US was modeled on, founded upon, the principal of commonwealth, and this is the socialism that Republicans become hysterical about.

[JuliaRain]

I like that guy.

[Marcospinelli]

Health Reform for Beginners: The Difference Between Socialized Medicine, Single-Payer Health Care, and What We'll Be Getting

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/06/health_reform_for_beginners_th_1.html

[avocats]

Oh thank goodness. Some facts for a change.

[fcsakes]

LOL!!

[blukazoo]

There are so many "major tools" already arguing about health care, it will be difficult to recognize this new one...

[sosi]

So this must build a collective voice of the 50 million uninsured, which is so missed in the debate...

[joyhamliton38]

I was wrong about Obama. I really see now that he's trying to change this country. Thank God, we have a humane president who is all about the little guy trying to make a dollar out of 14 cents.

[AlsoSarah]

Anyone that has had 14 cents before, knows it can be done too. Obama has had 14 cents.

[Coinyer101]

I stopped participating in the President's online stuff after the 'online townhall'. It is a matter of principle. I can't support a bad healthcare bill, either, and I don't believe coops,exchanges, and 'mandates' are the answer. However, seing as 'they' have already taken SP off the table, I feel as though I got no dog left in this hunt, so, I will not oppose whatever they bill they come up with. They're gonna do whatever they want, anyway....,

[Marcospinelli]

Don't let them take SP off the table.

Ever.

Get in their faces.

They are counting on you and me, and all others who know that the only solution to this problem is SP, on becoming apathetic and discouraged, and shutting up.

[sosi]

Could not be better said; never let up till SP is the rule, even if it takes some time...

[amaboss52]

We the People have a voice and if we all yell together theyll pay attention or they will be looking for jobs come election time. Dont give up we all need to stick together to get what we want. Keep writing the President, your Congresspeople (even the ones in other states). I and most other people are willing to pay extra to get free health care. Let them know that we will not give up and they must conform to our way of thinking. They work for us.

[Doubledoot]

If just creating yet another complicated bureaucratic health care plan : full of red tape, complications, and denial limits it will fall extremely short of what I think the American people were hoping for. Just another thing to complain about because it's ineffective and turns out to be more hype than substance. Who cares ? Instead of "if you are happy w/ your current health care provide via the company you work for " ...fine. It should be " the new health care plan will eliminate the burden of health care from employers" : It would get most big businessand small alike behind the plan. Insurance and pharmacy and some medical professinals would be alone in the fight against the so called "reform". Anyone earning less than 75K a yr.; automatically covered no limit no new taxes. Big business that have avoided taxes for years via tax abatements and such would now be required to pay the taxes and offshore and American Businesses located abroad would also be taxed fairly. McCain wants to know where the money will come from : There you go !

[discourse jockey]

"Health Care STORIES for America". On stories.barackobama.comm".

Right.

Who is he pretending to want to reach and persuade with that? Reps and blue dogs KNOW fully well the consequences of their opposition to a public health care plan. They just care more for the bribe money that actually governs America.

[jmpurser]

What a complete waste of time, effort, and money! SCREW THE STORIES!!! We KNOW it's a disaster out here! We desperately need a Universal Single Payer Health Insurance plan run by the Government and we need it NOW.

This is yet another distraction on the part of the President to make it look like he's actually doing something.

[BurtonOerney]

No, this is part of the strategy that got him elected president despite high odds against him. We don't get to govern by direct initiative. Only lucky, lucky californians get to do that. People in congress have to present a case and personal stories are good ammunition when presenting that case.

[Actionman]

and you are helping the debate with your idea of screw the stories? The stories are what tell the story of why we need health care reform and reform done right.

So here are two sites with petitions to alert congress to get health care done for the people that elected them and not the insurance company and big pharma that pays them not to.

http://standwithdrdean.com/

http://www.citizensforapublicoption.com/

[Marcospinelli]

Dean is not for single payer universal health care.

For more information on the only real health-care reform--single payer--and how to achieve it, please see the following Web sites:

http://www.singlepayeraction.org

http://www.healthcare-now.org

http://www.pnhp.org

[Solja]

I signed Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Patrick Leahy, and Senator Chuck Schumer's online petition when it first came out. Thank you for posting it here http://www.citizensforapublicoption.comm)

[Marcospinelli]

I think you're absolutely correct.

This is no different than Democrats in Congress putting up petition after petition on the internet calling for Bush's and Cheney's impeachment, saying "If we get 150,000 signatures, we'll introduce impeachment proceedings (or launch investigations, etc.)", and then doing nothing when the 150,000 signature threshold is easily met within hours and days. (Bob Wexler, Pat Leahy, John Conyers, are you listening?)

This is a tactic to slow health care reform down, make it an election issue, and then ultimately kill it.

Now is the time to find Democratic candidates locally, not DLC-approved incumbents, to challenge incumbents in the coming primary elections (2010 and 2012). Now is the time to get involved with your local Democratic Party organization, get active and toss out the DLC's stooges on the local level.

There is only NOW. If it's not happening now, with the abundant public support it has, it's not going to happen at all with these politicians in office.

[Actionman]

Don't worry if it doesn't pass as the people want it, the republicans will return to power in the midterm elections. Then they can show you what real reform is...

So continue to complain about what is being done to tell the congress about real names and addresses of people that want health care reform.

[Magee]

You're right. We don't need more stories. We need single payer healthcare, the only solution to this big mess.