In the Twitterverse, as in the blogosphere, shorter wins. Populated by fewer characters, tiny urls, and abbreviated words, the Twitterverse operates on one law: less is more. Except when it comes to health coverage.
When President Obama told Americans to offer up suggestions for healthcare reform, Twitterers obliged. Journalists, parents, doctors and wonks gathered under the hashtag “#healthreform,” sending out useful links, personal ideas and re-tweets. Taken altogether, the list breaks from the cacaphony of the larger Web to form somewhat of a “best-of” list created by people who know, or at least care, about healthcare reform more than the average Joe (Wilson).
In the Twitterverse, everyone can hear you scream. So when a study surfaces with a splashy headline, like “Uninsured more likely to die,” it gets re-tweeted again and again. Beyond that, the links range from the mainstream to the obscure.
Train more doctors, said @marionthorpe. Tori Sanchez, writing from Texas with the proud statement “Im [sic] going to use Twitter to talk about how much I love our capitalist country. Please don’t follow me if you don’t like what I say,” suggested, in a throwback to mid-90s Saturday Night Live, more cowbell.
Anthony Wright tweets under @healthaccess for Health Access California, a nonprofit healthcare consumer advocacy organization. His account is especially prolific, updating 5-10 times per day. Though some of his updates are links to news sources like Time magazine, his political slant is evident through his links to Nancy Pelosi’s blog and stories of healthcare nightmares…from the SEIU.
Not exactly an objective source, but he does give voice to organizations that would otherwise have trouble breaking through to an audience outside their immediate supporters. To balance him out, there’s people like glaucoma specialist robschertzer, who posted two Wall Street Journal articles: One arguing that middle-class Americans are overburdened by mandated coverage, the other detailing Sen. Max Baucus’ proposed plan. Robschertzer offered up a one-line summary: “nonprofit cooperatives to cover uninsured?” as though somewhat incredulous.
Or maybe he was just confused. So are up to 92 percent of the members of Congress, according to a link shared by @JennaRas, a healthcare marketer and advocate.
That’s pretty scary stuff. But not as scary as tweets linking to articles claiming that Obama plans to legalize illegal immigrants in order to provide them with health care (the nerve!) or an Investors Business Daily piece claiming that 45 percent of doctors would quit their jobs if healthcare reform was to pass.
A bit less civil and a bit more snarky are the other healthcare hashtag offshoots, like #hcr. It’s essentially a sounding board for liberal supporters of Obama’s plan, with tweets like “U.S.1st in health care spending, 37th in health” and “When Jesus healed the sick, how much was the co-pay?” (That one’s filed under #christian, too). And since Baucus’ proposal hit the table, there have been a flurry of #BadBaucusAmendments, #BestBaucusAmendments and just plain #StupidBaucusAmendments.
Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find #deathpanels, which hurls attacks at everyone from Obama to insurance companies to Jimmy Carter to Joe Wilson – everyone, it seems, but the meme’s author.
And with that, the twitter debate has spiraled from an earnest search for solutions to a paralysis of indecision to unbridled ad-hominem attacks. Tweets imitate life, it seems, and the healthcare debate.