Blogs Increasingly Have Power To Influence Health Policy, Improve Discourse On Health Care Issues, HHS Secretary Says

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: IT / Internet / E-mail;  Public Health
Article Date: 01 Aug 2008 - 7:00 PST

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Blogging can be a "very powerful engine for public policy setting," HHS Secretary and blogger Mike Leavitt said on Tuesday, CQ HealthBeat reports. Speaking at a forum sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Leavitt said that blogging has the power to advance the debate on health care policy by allowing more interaction between members of the public and policymakers.

Leavitt said that people have been able to provide him with helpful information on his own blog -- launched in August 2007 on the HHS Web site -- by commenting on his posts. He added that he writes about a range of topics, from his daily experiences and thoughts to the decision-making process on various health care policies and issues such as Medicare, SCHIP and import safety. "There have been times when someone has made an argument to me that I found compelling that I am sure began to mold and shape my thinking," he said, adding that blogging "enhances the capacity of public policy figures to communicate well." Leavitt also discussed the "wild success" of a recent HHS blog that focused on promoting a summit on pandemic flu.

HHS is using new media outlets, such as planned partnership in the fall with YouTube, to broaden its reach to a larger and younger group of people, Leavitt said (Parnass, CQ HealthBeat, 7/30).

The event also featured a panel discussion, moderated by Vicky Rideout, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation and director of its Program for the Study of Media and Health, featuring: Jacob Goldstein of the Wall Street Journal; Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute; Ezra Klein of American Prospect magazine; John McDonough from the office of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and formerly of Health Care for All in Massachusetts; and Tom Rosenstiel of the Center for Excellence in Journalism.

A webcast of the event is available online at kaisernetwork.org.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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