McCain Rally-Goers Talk Healthcare

I went to the McCain Rally in Sterling Heights, Michigan to survey attendees about healthcare. Michigan is a swing state. The economy is in a terrible state with unemployment over 8% and more than three million people living in or on the threshold of poverty.

Campaign rallies are fun. Media trucks, cameras and reporters lend a sense of importance and urgency. There's a party atmosphere amongst attendees. Protesters create edgy interactions with passersby. Capitalism is alive and well with button and t-shirt salespeople, who are nomads traveling from rally to rally.

I spoke with three McCain supporters and one self-described Democrat who had gotten stuck in rally traffic and decided to attend. I encountered my first interviewee, Lawrence Powell, a retired army officer, working in the parking lot. Lawrence had VA coverage and was satisfied with it. He was troubled by how expensive healthcare has become and cited the example of his sister-in-law who has multiple sclerosis and is paying $1,000 per month for COBRA coverage. Lawrence had to get back to directing traffic before we could talk about solutions.

I met the Democrat and another McCain supporter waiting in line to go through the metal detector. This was a pretty lively discussion. Both gentlemen were middle-aged and had acceptable coverage through employment, and they agreed that health care cost way too much.

Their views diverged over solutions. The Democrat believed that everyone should have access to healthcare for the good of the country. The McCain supporter's analysis was amazingly complex. He blamed lawyers for doctors' defensive medicine, but also felt that doctors are getting rich while patients are getting poor. He thought people would use less medicine if they had to pay for it out of their own pockets. I told him about my son Chris's situation, and he did see a role for subsidies for medications.

I sat next to Frieda, a McCain supporter in her early 60s and mother of four. Frieda had a 48 year-old-daughter with Type I diabetes, who recently had lost her auto-industry job and was on COBRA. Frieda was concerned about her daughter's situation and was hoping she would find coverage before her COBRA expired. Frieda believed there was a crisis in healthcare and definitely didn't like insurance companies excluding pre-existing conditions. She had misgivings about government getting involved, but could see a possible watchdog role.

All this goes to show that most Americans agree that there is a healthcare crisis. Deciding on a solution is the real challenge facing our country.