The Cover America Tour is 114 days long, but the preparation has taken that long and then some. To our fellow RV campers, highway drivers and summer travelers, I say to you: We are one prepared bunch.

We’ve spent hours in CPR and RV driving training. We learned how to hook up a black tank hose or a defibrillator on command. We know how to handle everything from tire blowouts to media questions to heat stroke (and hope that we only have to use one of those skills). Parking a 31 foot RV in tight spaces? Deft maneuvers with fire extinguishers? Check, check.

We’ve outfitted our new home with the all the necessities (and even a few luxuries) right down to the Consumer Reports-approved coffeemaker, which we all agreed fell into the ‘necessities’ category.

We’ve done a shakedown cruise of the RV from its home in Maryland to Consumers Union headquarters in Yonkers, NY (through pouring rain and New York City rush hour traffic, no less). We’ve wrapped & logoed it, loaded up and weighed it.

We’re ready to hit the road. First stop: Milford, CT.

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comments (17)

Comments

1 Posted by Jeffrey Fox at 05/28/08 07:33 PM

Watching your sendoff from the Consumers Union headquarters today, I was impressed with "Big Blue" (the RV). Its living quarters, while Spartan, looked cozy. And the artwork on the exterior was polished and should attract lots of attention where you go.

Here's wishing you godspeed, and success for all of us, in obtaining proper healthcare for all Americans.

Jeff

2 Posted by Eddie at 05/29/08 01:55 PM

First comment! Meg rules!!!

3 Posted by Pete B at 05/29/08 04:20 PM

Meg and company,

Your off to a great start. I'll be looking forward to reading this regularly. See you in a week or so.

4 Posted by joy at 05/29/08 05:50 PM

great site and fabulous running commentary (the author rocks). consider yo'selves bookmarked for frequent check-ins over the next 114 days...

5 Posted by Francille Radmann at 05/29/08 05:54 PM

My insurance plan (State of Texas self-insured plan contracted as Health Select to BCBS and to Medco for pharma.) sends brochures with publicly available information on diabetes, cardiac issues, etc. and calls this a service. I wonder how much is spent on this fake service? I can get better information on NPR or in the newspaper or ladies magazines. It is just one more way that insurers and phamaceutical companies get money from consumers and employers. I want real service for my health needs, not "shotgun" information services - information that I already have!

6 Posted by Joni at 05/29/08 06:07 PM

Insurance.....What a mess. I have wanted to share this story with someone for a while. My 27 year old sister-in-law and her best friend were both pregnant and due only a few weeks apart. My sister-in-law had insurance, but her friend did not. Her friend delivered the baby, and was sent home as soon as the hospital could release her, because of no insurance. Her friend went back to the hospital because she knew something was wrong. The hospital sent home again, and she died. She had a blood clot, and lost her life because she did not have insurance---that's what I will always believe. To make matters worse her husband could not handle her death and he died a about 7 weeks later. We think he overdosed on some medication, because he could not sleep. My sister-in-law still misses her friends. The baby is being raised by her maternal aunt.

7 Posted by Starr D. at 05/29/08 06:14 PM

Is your tour coming to any Southern California
cities like Lakewood, Cerritos, or Long Beach?
And if so, when? Lakewood, especially, has a
big shopping mall where you could probably park
your RV and talk to a lot of different people
from various backgrounds and demographics....
you'd probably hear a lot of interesting stories
from folks you'd find there!

8 Posted by Ed Miller at 05/29/08 08:04 PM

It seems the Cover America tour is duplicating the efforts of AARP's Divided We Fail campaign, at great expense. Am I missing something?

9 Posted by Conrad Wayne Ware at 05/29/08 08:13 PM

As an ex-cross country truck driver, I look forward to seeing this tour. I'm 72 years of age now and have never once regretted the time I spent on the road not to mention the education it afforded me; from the desert Southwest to Maine and from Miami to Vancouver. Good luck

10 Posted by Barbara Wallman at 05/30/08 05:18 AM

From what I can tell, you only want stories of disasters and unhappiness. You don't want to hear stories of success and satisfaction. I have removed my email from your list because I don't feel that Consumers Union should be trying to present a bias view as news.

11 Posted by Jeff Fox at 05/30/08 08:24 PM

In response to the 5/30 post by Ms. Wallman complaining that this site is only interested in the problems with the health care system:

1. This isn't a *news* site, it's a campaign to get consumers the affordable health care they lack. That's what Consumers Union's mission is.

2. Would you expect an anti-smoking campaign to collect stories about the pleasures of smoking, as told by those smokers lucky enough to have not gotten cancer or emphysema?

12 Posted by "Gramma" Marjorie Reeve at 05/31/08 03:03 AM

As your grandmother, I will watch with great interest your Cover America Tour.

Good luck!

13 Posted by Christopher George at 06/01/08 06:03 AM

Now that you’re in upstate New York perhaps you could interview some of the Canadians who are here visiting our “for profit” medical facilities to get the drugs and treatments they can’t wait for at home. Canadians have to wait for practically every diagnostic test or procedure. Those who get frustrated by the long delays pay "medical travel agents" to get to America for treatment. Health care isn’t immune from the laws of economics. It can be allocated through prices in a market or distributed equitably by the government. Unfortunately, when government controls a market they cannot compel innovation or efficiency so in order to contain costs they invariably restrict the health care supply. Provincial formularies restrict or delay access to new and effective but expensive drugs, so for years now Canadians who can afford it have been coming to the states for exotic but necessary medicines. This saves the government money but shifts costs to patients in the form of shortened lives, increased pain or big out of pocket expenses when they seek treatment elsewhere. You won’t be able to get a testimonial from the Canadians who died from the delays, but maybe you could include a caveat that with single payer systems health care is equal only in its shared scarcity?

14 Posted by Virginia Eskridge at 06/01/08 08:20 PM

When you come to Pittsburgh, representatives of the Western PA Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare would like to meet with you. We are a grassroots organization which successfully lobbies for HR 676, federal single-payer healthcare for all. You may reach us at our website http://www.wpasinglepayer.org/
or phone or email our co-chairs Sandy Fox (412) 421-8233 sm2fox@yahoo.com or Ed Grystar (412) 215-4141 egrystar@aol.com

Looking forward to talking to you.

Virginia C. Eskridge
Co-chair, Media Committee
412 361 1882

15 Posted by Linda at 06/01/08 08:51 PM

You go girl (and guys)! Good luck and God bless you.

surfergirl@fuse.net

16 Posted by Nicole Shane at 06/04/08 12:59 PM

Hope your trip is going well! We'll be looking for you on Friday - the tour bus is amazing. What an adventure in bringing awareness about the healthcare issues facing many people today...anything you need when you get here? Let me know!

17 Posted by Kathy Sweet at 06/07/08 03:22 PM

had a great visit with you guys...
You were so nice.
Good luck on your wonderful trip across America..

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