Some people Gray met said they could not afford health insurance. In some cases, though, she wondered whether health insurance was not their financial priority.

One certainty Gray took back to school this year, where she is a second year student, is that medical students have an obligation to be politically informed about the system in which they operate.

Gordon and Gray never set up any of their talks with people in advance. Typically they would ride for a few hours and stop at a convenience store along the way, get something to eat or drink, and talk to the people there.

The “Obamacare Listening Tour” jerseys the team wore invited conversation. Gordon and Gray would then dictate and summarize what they’d heard as a voice memo, which they later transcribed.

“At a minimum it informed me of people’s understandings of health insurance and health in general,” Gordon said. “And it helped me to be a better teacher and practitioner. A great lesson is that of listening. We need to listen to our patients. We can’t necessarily fix it, but we can at least listen.”

Gordon himself was never a fan of Obamacare because it includes the insurance industry, and much of the insurance industry is a business that prioritizes its stockholders.