The Affordable Care Act: Engaging Voters Around Good Government

Ouestion_Widget1California Calls believes that there are things you shouldn’t have to worry about, like how you can afford to go to the doctor or having to choose between food and prescription medication. The Affordable Care Act helps ease these types of worries for millions of Californians. Enrollment for the new healthcare coverage started October 1 of this year and now, for the first time in history, most Californians have access to quality affordable healthcare coverage.

For weeks leading up to this historic day, California Calls educated voters across the state about how the Affordable Care Act affects them and how they can get enrolled. We reached out to over 20,000 voters through social media, email, and a new section of the California Calls website dedicated to making sure everyone has the facts.

On September 29th, over 13,000 voters joined California Calls for a Telephone Town Hall to answer questions about how the new law will impact them and their families. A panel of experts, which included Dr. Paul Song, Executive Chairman of California Calls member organization Courage Campaign; Anthony Wright, Executive Director of Health Access and Tamika Butler, California Director of Young Invincibles answered questions about how the Affordable Care Act will impact their current insurance through their employers or government programs like Medicare and Medi-cal, who is eligible and how to enroll in new affordable coverage, and how to get young people healthcare coverage. Voters participated on the phone, via live webcast, and on Twitter.

Voters weighed in on the new law by answering poll questions during the call. 64% of the voters on the call believe the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, will benefit them or someone they know. That’s why beginning on October 14th, our member organizations will be dispatching over 1,000 grassroots leaders and volunteers across the state for four weeks. Leaders will talk to 100,000 individual voters and educate them on how the Affordable Care Act will benefit and equip them with the resources they need to spread the word to their family, friends and neighbors.

During our fall civic engagement program, we’ll be expanding our technology and experimenting with new ways to make our organizing more effective and efficient using smartphone technology to canvass door-to-door, and text messaging, email, and social media to stay in contact with voters after we talk to them.

This fall we will also continue expanding the formal base of 103,000 voters who have agreed with our vision for California and committed to vote in every election for policies that make California great again. These are  things like good jobs for everyone, smart government that invests in our future, and a fair tax system that makes sure corporations pay their fair share.