Health Care For America Now

It’s become something of a running joke in political circles in Minnesota: people wonder which 312 voters get to take credit for providing Senator-Elect Al Franken with his margin of victory. This, of course, is not an academic question. With your 312 votes should come the right to demand that your issue, constituency, members, aunts, uncles, and cousins get a seat at the table, right? The people who can and should take credit for Senator-Elect Franken’s victory are many:

Was it progressive Democrats?

Was it union members?

Was it base activists in the Twin Cities?

Obama voters in swing suburbs?

The environmental movement?

Choice voters?

The Tribes?

Rural Somali voters?

St. Paul’s Hmong voters?

College students?

Seniors?

The residents of any given block in south Minneapolis?

Senator-Elect Franken has been very gracious in acknowledging the breadth of support that got him 42% of the vote. (Remember, this was a three-way race.) However, the case for Senator-Elect Franken offering strong support for health care reform runs a lot deeper than election politics. It is a part of solid strategy to build his leadership by using his Senate seat to actually and demonstratively improve the lives of Minnesotans.

1) Minnesotans in every part of the state need health care reform. I’ve sat in rooms from Preston, MN (near the Iowa border) to Red Lake, MN (near the Canadian border) from St. Paul, MN (urban) to Willmar, MN (rural) and heard health care stories that range from frustrating to outrageous. There can be no doubt Senator-Elect Franken has heard similar stories during his 2+ years of crisscrossing the state.

2) Minnesotans strongly support a public health insurance option. The recent NYT/CBS and NBC/WSJ polls outlining broad support for the public health insurance option represent the baseline of such support in Minnesota. If 72-76% of Americans are supportive, Minnesotans are at least this supportive. After all, Mr. Franken will take over the Senate’s desk #94, the seat that, literally, held the late Senator Paul Wellstone.

3) Senator-Elect Franken is perfectly positioned to lead for Minnesota. With his impending assignment to the Senate’s HELP Committee Senator-Elect Franken will, from day one, be immersed in marking up Senator Kennedy’s Affordable Health Choices Act. There are 306 million American citizens. Only 23 of them sit on the HELP Committee. There are 312 voters and another 5.1 million Minnesotans that need Mr. Franken to bring us to that table.

Chris Conry is the Health Care Field Coordinator at TakeAction Minnesota.