Future Now
The IFTF Blog
"Stories of Health" makes health debate personal
Stories of Health is making the country's current debate around healthcare reform personal. The website features dozens of video interviews with people from all over California who have personally experienced the consequences of our nation's healthcare system.
Debra (below) tells the story of her experience with agammaglobulinemia and her battle to get Blue Cross to cover her medical expenses. Jackie tells how her husband's 11 days in a hospital left her in debt for years.
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The site is an collaboration of Apple engineer, Paul Schreiber and political activist, Stanford Williams. The pair met this May at an Organizing for America training camp, and launched Stories of Health shortly thereafter.
The site is not Paul's first experiment in using technology for social change. Last year, he took two months off from his job at Apple and headed for Chicago to volunteer as a web developer for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. He worked with other highly tech-savvy volunteers to design a highly sophisticated voter registration website that integrated numerous databases and helped voters to find their polling places on election day.