The progressive coalition Health Care for America Now fought hard to pass health care reform. Now it’s fighting hard to help reelect lawmakers who voted for the bill — even if it means not talking about it.
While polls show that health reform has become slightly more popular since passage, it’s still a polarizing issue, particularly in districts where Republicans and conservative groups have bombarded voters with negative ads.
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Now, HCAN’s field crews are finding that the best way to support reform-friendly lawmakers is to talk about something else: jobs, the economy or other issues likely to resonate more with voters.
“We want to be flexible in talking about what is most relevant to constituents, whatever issues are most motivational,” said HCAN’s national field director, Margarida Jorge, who organizes a daily call with their partner organizations. “We can have a high level of focus on health care but also understand at times the focus is going to shift.”
HCAN activists say they are not dodging their key issue; rather, they want to keep pace with voter concerns, which have markedly shifted over the past year.
But what HCAN describes as a tactical shift, reform opponents see as proof that the law is unpopular, a loser for Democrats in a tough election cycle. “Voters don’t like health reform and they know that,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former CBO director who now works with the American Action Forum on their Operation Healthcare Choice project. “Independents are key to control; health reform is unpopular but jobs and economy could move votes. When it comes to substance, on health reform, they’re in bad shape.”
Recent polling from the American Action Forum found low levels of support for health reform in competitive districts: in OH-16, for example, 28 percent of voters supported the new law.
Jorge described this summer’s strategy as a conscientious shift from last year, when HCAN directed partner groups to focus exclusively on health reform advocacy. “This August is not last August, where we would prescribe a certain approach” that focused solely on health reform, she told POLITICO. “We want to be talking about what the public is thinking about. We might go into a community all set to educate about health care but if that’s not what folks want to talk about, we’re flexible.”
Jorge herself recalls going to a recent HCAN campaign event in Virginia where she introduced herself to attendees as a health care activist, and getting little reaction on the issue. “It was all, ‘Oh my gosh, jobs are so bad,’” she said. Health reform may be far from voters’ minds — and a difficult campaign issue — since “most people out there are not going to see their health care change for awhile,” said Jorge. “You might see your premiums go up, but your premiums are going to go up anyway”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41534.html