We arrived in St. Paul after a few days’ drive from Denver, barely recovered from the DNC but looking forward to a packed week of events at the RNC and the chance to hear from delegates and people on the street about health care.

Monday, amidst a shortened agenda of events so officials could focus on monitoring the landfall of Gustav, we still managed to catch up with a few folks out on the street. A young woman, uninsured, who has been paying off hospital bills from a gall bladder surgery for years. A Vietnam veteran who thinks health care for those that have served our country should be the top priority for our leaders. A health care clinic director who believes Minnesota does a good job, but still sees the needs of many communities going unmet.

We too kept an eye on the effects of Gustav as it hit the Gulf Coast, seeing places on the news that the RV had been only a month or so ago and thinking of people like Karen and Sheila we met along the way. Three years after Katrina we saw first hand how long it can take communities to rebuild, and how difficult the lasting effects of a hurricane can make finding jobs or accessing health care.

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