Obama Team Using Hi Tech Tools To Engage Public Opinion On Health

Featured Article
Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP;  Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 05 Dec 2008 - 1:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Continuing with the methods perfected during the election campaign, the administration of US president-elect Barack Obama is using hi tech tools to stay in touch with public and interest group opinion on what should happen in the promised health reform. The groundwork for debating and shaping policy is mobilizing via postings on websites, internet correspondence, video clips, blogs, email alerts and calls for "health care house parties" to brainstorm new ideas.

Obama's right hand on health care, former senator majority leader Thomas A. Daschle, seen by many to be number one choice to head up the department of Health and Human Services (HHS) when the new administration takes over from George W. Bush on 20th January, conducted a conference call with 1,000 supporters on Wednesday. They were selected from over 10,000 people who had expressed interest in health issues.

Ron Pollack, executive director and vice president of Families USA, an advocacy group for consumers of family health care that acts as watchdog over children's payer programs, has been in touch via email. He told the Washington Post that:

"In the last three days I've exchanged three sets of e-mails with him [Daschle]."

According to Reuters, Pollack predicts that the health care reform planning is going to be a:

"Very cooperative endeavor that will involve both the president and (nominated) Secretary Daschle and the Congress."

"Obama and Tom Daschle are going to work very closely with the Congress in developing a proposal," he added .

Old fashioned Washington-style lobbying has not been neglected either, reported the Washington Post. Daschle has already met with more than 100 "insiders" as the paper describes them, from union leaders to hospital managers, from interest groups like the AARP who represent seniors, to private company CEOs.

A spokesman for the AARP, Jim Dau, said:

"We are thrilled that there is this much activity this early on by this many committed leaders because the issue of healthcare reform is just that important."

Dachsle is scheduled to make a speech later today in Denver, where according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) he will reiterate that Obama made health care reform one of his top campaign priorities. Dachsle is expected to confirm that the focus will remain strong, even amid the current depressed economic climate. However, the WSJ comments that the speech will not reveal any timetables for reform.

Dachsle has asked Americans to hold health care house parties over the coming holiday season and brainstorm ideas on how to overhaul the US health care system.

During the election campaign, the Obama team collected millions of email addresses, creating a vast communication network through which they could elicit support, ideas and funds for the campaign.

The WSJ reports that the Obama government transition team has already posted two health videos on the www.change.gov website and is asking people to log in and give their ideas. According to Dachsle, over 10,000 comments have already come in via that route. People who want to host brainstorming parties to discuss health care are also invited to register on the site.

A new idea that appears to be emerging from the Obama camp is that whoever heads up the HHS will not only be administering a department but "shepherding" health care reform through Congress, as the Washington Post describes it.

President of the Federation of American Hospitals, Charles N. "Chip" Kahn III told the Post this was a departure from the traditional role of the HHS, which in the past was "more or less a service organization to the White House" while the president's White House team drove policy. The new role Obama is proposing "really creates a new type of secretary," he added.

Sources: Washington Post, Reuters, Wall Street Journal.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today