Oral history interview with Constance "Connie" J. Anderson, 2022
Abstract
Connie Anderson reflects on her experiences during the years of the Obama presidency, and shares memories of her encounters with President Obama and other Obama administration officials. Anderson's sister, Natoma Canfield, who had previously survived cancer, wrote a letter to Obama in December 2009 to describe the skyrocketing cost of her health insurance, and Obama spoke often about her situation in public, with his staff in the White House, and in congressional negotiations over the Affordable Care Act. Anderson shares memories of her and Canfield's experiences with Obama in the years following the letter, including at the healthcare reform rally in Ohio at which Anderson introduced the president, at the White House signing ceremony for the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, on Air Force One, and at rallies and White House events over the subsequent years of the Obama presidency. Anderson also shares stories of Canfield's illness and her service as a caregiver for her sister, and remembers her conversation with Obama following Canfield's death in June 2021. Also discussed are Anderson's experiences with White House staff, her memories of Obama's election in 2008, the interest of local and national press in Canfield's relationship with Obama, and Canfield's efforts to maintain her health insurance in the years prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act
Presidents--Correspondence.--United States; Health care reform--United States; Medical care, Cost of--United States; Health insurance--Costs.--United States; Anderson, Constance; Obama, Barack; Canfield, Natoma; United States; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2022
Physical Description
25 pages
Note (Biographical)
Connie Anderson is the sister of the late Natoma Canfield, an Ohio resident and cancer survivor, whose 2009 letter to President Obama about the rising cost of her health insurance premiums inspired the president in his push for the passage of the Affo rdable Care Act (ACA). Anderson and Canfield traveled with President Obama several times over the course of the administration's healthcare reform effort, and, Mrs. Anderson was invited to the White House in March 2010 to represent her sister, who was unable to attend due to illness, at the signing ceremony for the ACA. Mrs. Canfield passed away on June 18, 2021, at the age of sixty-one
Note
Interviewed by Terrell Frazier on June 22, 2022. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Constance "Connie" J. Anderson, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023