Oregon Public Broadcasting

The federal effort to overhaul health care has been the big political story of the summer. 

Chances are you have not read HR3200 – the main reform bill in the House – because it’s over a thousand pages long.  That’s okay, because you can hear it instead.

“Subparagraph B.  For 3 consecutive contract years, the Secretary shall not permit the enrollment of new enrollees....”

That’s a little bit of the bill, read by a professional voiceover artist, and posted on the website hearthebill.org.  There you can hear the whole bill, read by about 50 different actors who donated their voices. 

Kitzie Stern is one of them.

She’s a Corvallis voice actress, who has done work for the Portland Japanese Garden and Tillamook Ice Cream, among other clients.  She says this project was a really tough narrating job.

Kitzie Stern: “It was challenging because we did a bunch of narration, and then discovered that the naming protocols were all wrong. It was section, subsection, subparagraph, clause -- there’s was a whole naming protocol.  So that was a little difficult.  And also it wasn’t a script.  Reading a bill is really different than reading a script.”

Kitzie Stern says she’s very good at reading long sentences without stumbling. That’s good, because this is the kind of stuff she had to read.

"Section1834, Subsection M, Paragraph 4, Subparagraph F of such act 42USC-1395M,Subsection M, Paragraph 4, Subparagraph F is amended by adding at the end ofthe following new clause...."

Kitzie Stern read 31 pages of the bill.  It took her about five hours. 

The website’s founders say its an alternative for senior citizens and sight-impaired people who want to know exactly what’s being debated in Congress. 

Kitzie Stern says she wanted to make a civic-minded contribution to the debate.

Kitzie Stern: “People need to know that there are positive things happening around health care, that it’s not all screaming at town hall meetings.  There’s lots going on behind the scenes that isn’t getting reported.  And I think it’s a story that might give some people hope.”

You can download and listen to Kitzie Stern and her fellow voice talent read HR3200 at the website hearthebill.org.