Saturday, April 19, 2014

How to Run on Health Reform - NYTimes.com

With all of the money pouring into NC for November's Senate race between incumbent Kay HAGAN and likely Republican opponent, Thom TILLIS, I increasingly think we need to find a way to take a lot of ill-informed rhetoric and set it both straight and personal. If I can find the time, I want to take an issue like the health care law, for which Sen. HAGAN voted and which Mr. TILLIS opposes, and look at it from a North Carolina perspective. I hope to outline what a vote for either candidate might mean, as specifically and personally relevant as one can make it. My thought is to do this in an interactive fashion so that it would be fun for someone to work her/his way through it. Here is an example:

"A vote for Sen. HAGAN likely would mean that she would vote for the federal health care law would to continue as is, subject to some fine-tuning. This would mean that X people in North Carolina would have access to insurance that they likely otherwise would not. If you are one of them, you are a direct beneficiary. If you are not, you are an indirect beneficiary. A vote for Mr. TILLIS would mean a new vote in the Senate to repeal or more dramatically reduce the health care program. If you are directly affected by the law, you might find that any insurance available to you would come only from independent insurance companies, perhaps with less requirements as to coverage than are now a part of the federal program.

On this issue, would this mean that you are more likely to vote for

0 - HAGAN

0 - TILLIS"

The interactive feature would allow respondents to indicate the importance of the issue to them using a 0-10 scale.The totals for each candidate would then provide the voter with a better guide on this critical choice - taking into account their personal preferences and the importance of those preferences to the individual.

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