New Hampshire fresh air and democracy

Short White Coat is a blog written by second-year Harvard medical student Ishani Ganguli. Ishani's posts appear here, as part of White Coat Notes. E-mail Ishani at shortwhitecoat@gmail.com.

In the isolating bubble of medical school, Washington, D.C., can seem far away.

But the prominence of healthcare issues in the 2008 presidential primaries -- with continual media reminders of the 47 million uninsured and polls showing that healthcare has risen to become one of the top voter concerns -- should convince even the apolitical among us to care about the race to the White House.

I’ve been watching with a great deal of interest (it’s like following sports, I decided, except that these results affect us beyond game day). And on Saturday morning, two classmates and I drove up to Nashua, N.H., to canvass for a certain unnamed Democrat in the presidential primary.

After receiving directions and a script at campaign headquarters, we went off to our assigned neighborhoods to make our case for this candidate door-to-door. I sunk my jeaned legs into the fresh depths of snow covering each unshoveled front walkway, high on fresh air and democracy.

That morning, I met an independent voter who was undecided and revealed the cost of healthcare as the point on which her vote would pivot. During the car ride, we’d given ourselves a refresher course in the candidates’ health plans -- straight from our take-home final in last semester’s healthcare policy class -- and I used this material to help fuel the discussion. I left this woman’s doorstep with her assurance that she’d consider our conversation.

Though I can’t say if our efforts made a difference in last night’s results, it felt worthwhile to give it a try.