Young Voters Are Obama's Best Hope for Healthcare Reform
When Matt Singer was 19 years old he decided he needed a break from college. He left Whitman College and moved home to Montana, working part time to support himself. He was doing fine until one day when he woke up with intense stomach pain and had to drive himself to the hospital. Three hours later, after a CAT scan and blood tests, it was confirmed that Matt had a kidney stone. Young and healthy, he recovered quickly and was back at work the next day. One week later he received a $1200 bill in the mail for the hospitals services. "When I opened the bill my mouth dropped to the ground, $1200 was what I was making in a month!" says Matt Singer.
This is not an unusual story. Singer is a member of the age group, 18 to 29-years-olds, that is most likely to be uninsured in this country. "I'm lucky. I had a family that could help me cover the medical bills. Not everyone my age is so lucky. Some folks with kidney stones just have to accept the pain and hope it passes, so to speak." Singer's situation and debt was minor compared to some of the situations his friends and co-workers have been in. "The health care debate tends to be about old people and families but, in all honesty, there isn't a generation with more to lose from this broken system and more to gain from reform."
A new SurveyUSA poll released yesterday shows that Singer is not alone in his call for reform. Singer's a member of the age group (18-34) that both expressed the strongest desire for reform and the strongest support for a public option. According to the SurveyUSA poll, 60% of those 18-34 support Obama's plan -- including 66% of 18 to 24-year-olds and 74% of 25 to 29-year-olds -- compared to 51% overall. "This is our generation's shot at real reform, we aren't going to let it pass us by," says Singer.
That's why in April of this year, Singer launched a national volunteer run campaign called Generation H which is working to elevate the voices of young people in the health care debate and call for comprehensive health care reform. With field campaigns in Oregon, Colorado and Montana, Generation H volunteers are hitting the streets with their own brand of canvassing. Every weekend young people dress up in scrubs and carry stethoscopes and clipboards to conduct what they refer to as "public-interest transfusions to the health care debate." These 'fake doctors' go door to door surveying young voters to find out what they want from the health care system and help them write letters to their elected officials on the spot. "Because we are dressed up and laughing and joking around, young people actually answer the door to talk to us to find out what we are doing", says 18 year old Generation H volunteer Natasha Berwick. "In other campaigns I've worked on, I'll knock on 40 doors in a row and not engage in a real conversation with anyone. As a fake doctor almost every single person talks to you."
Generation H is a project of the Bus Federation that started in Montana and is spreading across the country. They are not alone in their efforts to make young voters heard on this issue. Rock the Vote is running a national multimedia campaign to bring young people's experience with health care to the forefront of the debate called "Yes We Care." Members of the League of Young Voters are paying visits to key law makers in Maine and Pennsylvania. And the State PIRGs are leading a national education tour about the inadequacies of the health care system using a 7 foot doll named Healthcare Harry. Some may scoff at the tactics used to get the attention of young voters, but it's working- according to the SurveyUSA poll 91 percent of young people in this country say they are paying attention to health care issues.
"Let's see: young people care about the issue, are the most supportive of changing the system, and have the most to gain from comprehensive reform - and the most to lose from its failure," said Thomas Bates of Rock the Vote. "This is our fight, too. And we're going to do it our way."
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Young voters are Obama's best hope because they are the easiest to fool.
Get Real!
Health care is not like going to a restaurant. you generally don't get to choose how much you pay and if you want desert. Anybody could go to the ER and find a bill that is bigger than their bank account.
Thank goodness for you kids. I humbly apologize for my greedy, selfish, mean-spirited generation (baby boomers) who profited hugely from the progressive economic policies of the 30s-50s and then became the vanguard of the almost completely successful Republican (and conservative Democratic) efforts to dismantle them (with the lovely consequences we have seen over the last 8 years -- stagnant wages, wealth disparity greater than what prevailed in the 1920s, end of comfortable middle class, etc). You kids have a lot of work to do but I have worked with you a bit (as a College professor) and you give me hope that there will be a return to American greatness. Go for it!
I have not been greedy, selfish, mean-spirited , etc.
Speak for yourself.
This is great too.
Great article, Heather! It's nice to see some discussion on the importance of young people in this critical policy fight.
Would be good if these "young people" knew what details are in "reform."
Not sure the administration even knows.
Great article. Let's not let this moment pass!!
Mrs. Box I think your right. I also think that most people don't do their own research, they are impressionable and can react not in a good way, if they have information that is not true. In fact we can (all) be guilty of that one. Most of the people who are against the healthcare reform are older individuals and basically I feel are not comfortable with change. You see if you can distort info and get enough people in an uproar you can possibly cause a lot of confusion. Young adults, tend to listen and tend to be more about change and as we grow things won't stay the same, they just can't, young people are growing and you have to water a rose if you want to see it's perfection. Just my view.
Will i am needs to do a youtube video to support health care and Russell Simmons, John Legend and P Diddy need to get on the horn and promote this idea too.
The only thing your young voters are going to get out this reform effort and Congress is an individual mandate that will compel the IRS to fine them for not having Health Insurance.
I thought you were going to say that young people had figured out a way to offer Max Baucus more money than the health insurance companies.
You'd think that creating and running, the most dynamic and effective campaign ever would be enough to convince politico's to take us into consideration, especially when the issue effects us so directly. Why are we not a central part of their strategy? Beats the Health outta me!
No Youth
No Obama
No Change
maybe they'll they'll come to us for support on climate change
You have to make yourself a part. Contact Organizing for American, Move On and Democracy for America and get involved. You need to use your social networking accounts to spread the word. And don't forget to contact the White House and your representatives in the Senate and House often.
This is your life. You can make a difference.
It blows my mind when people my age say that they're not interested in politics, that they're boring. That's like saying that your ability to live how you want isn't worth a second thought.
These kids deserve our praise, our support and, most importantly, our ACTION for having the drive and the creativity to create a program this interesting. Our generation will only inherit the problems of the one previous. Let's step in and wake everyone up!
My older brother broke his finger this year and hesitated in going to the doctor because of the high cost to repair it. After I yelled at him and explained that a broken finger needs to be taken care of by a medical professional, he caved. And thanks to his lack of healthcare, he's still paying it off, several months later.
What were his options though? Aside from not breaking his finger in the first place...
It's awesome that young people are working so hard for reform... we do have a hard road ahead of us but it's totally inspiring!
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