Updates from the Road

Relaxing after a long day of canvassing on Monday

The Alternative Spring Breakers are in Atmore, Alabama today doing walk-in healthcare enrollments at the public library.  We've had some great (and some not so great) experiences so far.  It's been exciting to help people enroll in affordable healthcare plans--Karin even got a hug from a woman she enrolled--but we've also had some disappointing experiences where people fell in the "Medicaid gap," which means their income is below the poverty line but they still make too much for Medicaid.  We learned in our training that this would be an issue since Alabama is one of the states that chose not to expand Medicaid coverage, but it's been difficult to see it happen to real people.  We've got a revolution brewing, though--several of our Spring Breakers plan to organize petitions and letter writing campaigns when we get home.

Our walk-ins have been a little slow today, so we've improvised with some canvassing.  We've gone out to nearby businesses like restaurants, salons, and grocery shops to talk to people about enrolling.  Some people have been resistant, but others have been able to enroll on the spot.  We're going to do a little more canvassing in Brewton this afternoon.

While we were canvassing in Brewton yesterday, we noticed that a small fair was setting up in a parking lot.  Breana went over to ask when they were opening, and it turns out it's tonight!  We decided to attend the fair in preparation for our walk-in event tomorrow.  We'll talk to people about our event, and we might ride some rides as well.  They're the kind that make you realize you'll probably want to have health insurance before you get on...

So tomorrow (provided we survive the fair rides), we'll do another walk-in enrollment event at the public library in Brewton.  This will be our big event, and we're hoping that it will be a little more busy because of all the canvassing we've done and the radio and newspaper publicity that Bama Covered has done.

Even though we've had some setbacks, it's been a great experience so far.  We're strategizing for this afternoon's canvassing as I type!