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New Hampshire fresh air and democracy

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Ishani Ganguli January 9, 2008 12:39 PM

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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.

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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.

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About white coat notes

White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

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