"I almost had a heart attack on Capitol Hill."
“What is a digital therapeutic?” asks Congress member Ted Lieu .
“It’s digital technology as medicine.”?
“You know... it’s heart disease that’s going to bankrupt our country. It’s the No. 1 killer of Americans and there aren’t enough doctors to treat the condition.”
“We spend all our money at the end when people are sick and in hospitals and not enough to prevent people from getting sick.”
I’m having a deep healthcare policy discussion with the man who very well might become the next Speaker of the House one day, and I’m feeling like months of hard work are paying off…spectacularly.
TLDR
An evening of politicking.
On my right is the second highest-ranking member of the Democratic Caucus, Ted Lieu .
On my left is Mr. Go who is at tonight’s dinner as my and Jay C. 's special guest.??
Moments before Mr. Go had stood up to give remarks about how he’s honoring his daughter’s legacy by introducing the Michelle Go Act . Michelle was killed when she was senselessly pushed onto NYC subway tracks by a homeless, schizophrenic man.
Then Congresswoman Judy Chu stood up to say that she will be co-sponsoring the bill and introducing it to the CAPAC - the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.?
The puzzle pieces are falling...right into place.
“I almost had a heart attack on Capitol Hill.”
“I was headed into a meeting on the Hill, and I started to feel some numbness in my right arm. I didn’t feel right, so I stood up and went to the House doctor.”
“He decided that I should get checked out. They ran an EKG and everything seemed fine, but there was a specialist on site who decided to do a CTTA scan (coronary computed tomography angiography) just in case. That’s the standard of care in the UK. "
"They found something abnormal and rushed me into surgery to get two stents put in. Ever since then, I’ve been pushing for more Medicare funding to make sure CTTA scans can be used to diagnose heart attacks.”
“What does Hello Heart do?”
“Hello Heart is a digital health solution that helps people manage their heart health. It’s a simple but very effective. We have a Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff and people get in the habit of taking their blood pressure.”
“It connects to a digital coaching app that lets you know if you’re at risk of a heart attack and then helps to coach you on things you can do to improve your heart health - like taking your meds regularly or moving more.”
“Can you create a CMS code for this?”
“You know CMS doesn’t like creating codes that benefit just one company, and we’re the only one out there doing this well.”
“What about the VA or the DoD? Veterans should be using this.”?
I would love nothing more than to talk Ted Lieu 's ear off about healthcare policy. I have so many thoughts on how to fix the system. It’s a problem that I’ve thought about for over 15 years.?
But there’s something more urgent on my mind.
“Why aren’t we registering voters?”
“Let’s talk about voter registration. Why isn’t there a more concerted effort to register voters nationally?”
“It’s just not how the system is designed. That happens at a State level. There’s no national pocket of money to do this.”
He’s confirming what I’ve known all along.
The core of the core - getting more people registered to vote - the key to a functioning democracy isn’t where the vast sums of money being raised during election season are being spent.?
Over 86-94% of whatever you donate to political campaigns will go towards running silly TV ads to get you to remember a candidate’s name when you vote.
The Party has mostly ceded control of voter registration to the State Party structure. Some states are run well and others not.
Cases in point:
Voter registration is the key to winning elections.
Georgia is a Purple state not by chance. Voter registration was prioritized by Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight Action which led to a stunning 2020 election result.
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No carrots for candidates
The incentives in the system are not set up to create the right behaviors by candidates. If I’m a candidate and raise $1 million dollars for my campaign, I am surrounded by a cottage industry of advisors who want me to spend money on a host of things that are not always focused on me winning.
But there’s no one telling candidates that the key to winning elections is to get more people who actually believe in their platform registered and voting. Because there’s no money in that.
And that requires a more sophisticated marketing mix where you invest in some direct response marketing (getting people to take a specific action) AND brand marketing (getting people to know your name and what you’re about).
Taking a MVP and scaling
My first call is to Eric Chen .?
“Eric, you said you wanted to invest in an AAPI voter project that had metrics behind it. We just registered 1k young AAPI voters in Maricopa County. Arizona was decided by 10k votes back in 2020.?
"We’re seeing a 10%+ conversion rate and estimate that the cost per voter registered will be $8-10. 80% will go on to vote and I think I will get that higher if I get everyone registered to vote-by-mail.”
“I like the Moneyball approach. I’m in. Funds headed your way.”
Eric Chen had a few more questions, of course.
Investing in Democracy (aka America)
I’m on a call with my lead investor. He was ignoring my texts after the debate debacle. But I knew if I stayed disciplined and kept focused, Asian Americans Rise would be ready when the opportunity presented itself.
“We took your $50k and got the metrics we need to scale. Will you come in for more?”
“I’ll give you $500k.”
“Thank you. This is enough to fund voter registration of all young Asian American Pacific Islanders across the six swing states that will likely decide the election.”
“And it won’t just impact 2024 but registering young voters means we’ll impact every cycle for decades. It’s just smart money, and our way of making the future happen faster.
“I appreciate you and what you’re doing for our country.”
“Let’s launch the largest Asian American Pacific Islander voter registration drive in history together.”
My next call is to a prominent AAPI civic engagement group. Their model has been to raise funds and re-distribute funds to local, on-the-ground groups to register, call, text to get AAPIs out to vote.
The problem with that is that it’s very expensive and almost untrackable.
“Can you come to the fundraiser that I’m co-chairing on Friday?”
“I’m going to something at Stanford that weekend. Let me see if I can adjust the flights.”
“Let’s do this together. You can put in funds. Asian Americans Rise will put in two-thirds of the funds. We can announce the largest AAPI registration drive in history.”
“Once the 2024 election is over, I’ll transfer this voter registration program over to you. You’ve been doing this type of work for over 15 years. This is where it belongs. I’ll train up a marketer for you.”
“Wendy, I appreciate you never giving up on us. Let’s do this."?
Do you want to be a part of a historic Asian American voter registration drive? We are looking for funders, email marketers, social media writers, developers and more. We’re about to wrap up Phase 1: getting people registered, but there’s so much more to do and there's less than 90 days to make an impact. Here's our GoFundMe link. Every dollar matters.
Catch up on our 2024 election series here:
Legal Executive
3 个月Very inspiring!