On Friday Senator Tom Daschle announced a campaign to get input from the public about what healthcare reform should look like. “The Transition will host Health Care Community Discussions across the Country over the holidays this December to help his Policy Team put together their final recommendations for the New Administration.”
What a novel approach. What a change from the past when plans were written behind closed doors with little or no input from the public, i.e. the people whose lives are being impacted by the healthcare decisions being made.
They want people to host Health Care Community discussions in our homes and in our neighborhoods between December 15 and December 31. Could we host a virtual one? Or at least a virtual extension of a physical one?
(I’d also like to host one in my home, official or not. You’re all invited.)
It is thrilling for the public to be invited to participate in the discussion, but with the invitation comes the responsibility to do something. Perhaps we could use this blog to come up with ideas to answer their request — grand ideas, down to earth ideas, crazy no-way-in-the-world to implement ideas, practical ones that may seem too small to consider. Let’s take this on as a “you asked for it” challenge.
Perhaps, the change that was promised, will be delivered.
The party in our home will be Dec. 30. email me, CGreene@DrGreene.com for details, directions, and to RSVP. We’d love to see you all face-to-face, but using this Blog as a virtual Health Care Community Discussion party is a great second best for those of you unable to make it to the Bay Area.
So, this is a proposal to get input from the general public? You mean that the American public is supposed to propose their solutions to what may be the most complex problem facing this nation, during a 2 weeks-period starting in 5 days?
This is the first proposal coming from the new administration that doesn’t seem to make ANY sense to me.
If you want to get feedback from the American public about healthcare reform you must precede the 2 weeks of conversations about potential solutions with a real period of time where the public can finally be educated about the incredibly opaque american healthcare system. If the people do not understand the problem, how can they propose valuable solutions? The wisdom of crowds works only because the end users propose innovative solutions to problems they have faced.
I would definitely encourage the new administration to use all the internet based tools to educate the public about the most important causes of the dysfunctional system.
I would also build a site where we, as American residents and nationals, can view, in a few clicks and a few minutes, the most powerful statistics to show why healthcare is definitely too broken and too expensive to be reformed by the professionals whose livelihood depend on it. Real reform will only happen after millions of Americans get together and force the changes from outside any of the guilded walls. The internet is here to make it happen.
Applauding the grass roots intentions inherent in the above proposals, I gladly open my home in Reinbeck, Iowa for such an informational and hopefully catalytic discussion. As a retired specialist and educator in preventive health, my own focus would be drawn on experience from working in the occupational health sector of my home country, Norway.
Gilles — I’m not at all sure why the period for review is so short and with so little notice. Your ideas are all very good, but not sure how we can help implement them. So let’s work with what we’ve got — at least it’s an invitation to offer our thoughts, which is much better than we’ve had in the past.
C~
Cheryl,
Indeed ACOR is working with what it has, namely 50,000 cancer patients and caregivers. Real customers of medical care, who all have been through the ropes of the system. Their input on healthcare reform is fascinating.
Based on what I’ve seen on The Health Care Blog, the mid-level professionals are entrapped on fighting for their piece of the pie, deaf, mostly to patient concerns, the dragons of the insurance companies have already gotten their forces gathered in private (they don’t need blogs to be heard; they want to stay out of sight); the Obama administration is looking for “moving stories”to illustrate whatever policy changes they decide to make. They will move everything from political center, which means business as usual. Where do e-communities stand in this?