Sources
AHCJ has compiled an extensive source list and resources to assist journalists writing about the candidates' health care plans.
Trudy Lieberman, AHCJ President
In mid-August, right before the political conventions, came an ominous story from the Chicago Tribune, "What happened to health care?"
"In the daily rat-a-tat-tat between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, the silence is deafening," the story began. Maybe health care had passed its prime seemed to be the message. It went on to report that during the Democratic primary fight, Obama and Hillary Clinton arguing over who, as president, would do the best job on health was daily fodder for the media. "And now, there is … not much." The Trib suggested that the price of gasoline had trumped health care. Perhaps it is just something new for the media to focus on, and in our business, we prize the new.
Just because the candidates are not talking about health care every day, even as real differences between them have emerged, does not mean that it has disappeared as an important voter concern. I would argue that health care is still a top worry for many Americans and crucial to their economic well-being. Medical debt piles up as underinsured families who've had back luck healthwise find their policies don't cover all the care they need. At least 25 million adults are in this boat.
Trudy Lieberman
Young adults starting their first jobs often go without coverage because it's too expensive. Sick people trying to buy policies on their own find they are uninsurable because carriers don't make money insuring them. And of course, the uninsured simply don't get treatment when they can't pay. None of this has changed since early in the year when Clinton and Obama duked it out over mandates or no mandates.
The way I see it, the media have largely followed the candidates' lead and reported on the lines in their health care script, and some of the reporting has shown the clear distinctions between the approaches advanced by the candidates. But one story genre has been missing – and here is where the media need to lead: It's the stories of how ordinary people fit into the candidates' proposals. How will they be affected, good, bad, or in between? That's puzzling since we in the media are always being asked by editors to personalize our stories – make people see themselves in the problem we are writing about.
I am not advocating that reporters trot out the formulaic, anecdotal story model that by now has become so shopworn that maybe it should be banished from the journalistic repertoire. But I am suggesting that we start to write about how real people will be affected by all this wonky Health Policy talk and the stenographic sound bites. Nor am I suggesting that we return to a model that was used a decade or so ago during the Clinton era. Back then, the press published lots of stories about winners and losers, another formulaic way of writing that suggests reform will affect people in absolute ways.
Because so much is still unknown about what some of the candidates' proposals will really do, there's a lot of gray to explore. In truth, much of what we write about is gray. But unless we tell our audiences just what they can expect from either candidate, they might really become disengaged.
In a recent blog post on cjr.org, I quoted my former editor at Consumer Reports, Irwin Landau, who reminded me that something that affects you personally is more interesting than something that doesn't. Health care is personal. Ordinary people need to know how any change will affect them. Wonk talk is just not that interesting, and turns them off. When the next pollster calls, they may well say that health care is way down on their list of concerns.
Writing about how different people with different health situations will fare under the McCain and Obama proposals is harder than recording a quote or two uttered in stump speech. But there are lots of sources to get you started. See the sidebar to this column for some ideas. Some sources are from our AHCJ archives. Once you do a little background research, I suggest that you identify a cross section of your community (I did that for my CJR.org series, "Health Care on the Mississippi"). You'll find all kinds of individuals and families who will do well, poorly or in between under the candidates' plans.
And once we have a new president, these stories can be done again as the legislative push (hopefully) begins.
NEXT -> Get an extensive source list and resources to assist journalists writing about the candidates' health care plans.
Trudy Lieberman is director of the health and medicine reporting program at City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism and is president of the AHCJ board of directors.
