Health Care Blog

Vermont Regional Health Forum: Streaming at 1:30

Posted by Jesse Lee on March 17, 2009 at 10:09 AM EDT

The next stop in the drive for health reform is in Burlington, Vermont today, where another Regional Forum will be hosted by Gov Douglas of Vermont and Gov Patrick of Massachusetts. Again, it will focus on getting input from the American public and stakeholders from every side of the issue, from doctors to business owners to public officials.

Watch the livestream at HealthReform.gov at 1:00.

The local NPR station in Boston, WBUR, has a story up on the caravan up to Vermont from Massachusetts:

Dozens of Massachusetts hospital, insurance, employment and health care advocacy leaders are on the road to Vermont to discuss national health reform.
The governors of Vermont and Massachusetts are co-leading today's event to highlight their states' efforts to cover the uninsured. They'll take questions and comments for about an hour and half.

Alliea Groupp, who will attend with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, says now, during an economic downturn, is the time to make sure Americans have coverage.

"We need to be able to strengthen the safety nets and one such safety net here in Massachusetts is our health reform," says Groupp. "And to be able to deliver that nationally could be a significant improvement in many people's lives."

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Weekly Address: Reversing a Troubling Trend in Food Safety

Posted by Cammie Croft on March 14, 2009 at 5:30 AM EDT

In this week's address, President Barack Obama makes key announcements regarding the safety of our nation's food.

"We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative. But there are certain things that we can't do on our own. There are certain things that only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and don't cause us harm."

Watch Your Weekly Address below to learn more about the President's measures to make the food that lands on America's dinner tables safer.

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download .mp3 or .mp4 | also available here | read transcript

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The first regional forum on health reform: streaming at 2pm ET

Posted by Jesse Lee on March 12, 2009 at 11:09 AM EDT

Today is the first of five regional forums following up on the forum at the White House a week ago, hosted by Governors Jennifer Granholm of Michigan and Jim Doyle of Wisconsin. As the President explained in the announcement of the regional forums, they will be meant to foster the same kind of meaningful and open dialogue that occurred at the White House in communities across the country: "The forums will bring together diverse groups of people all over the country who have a stake in reforming our health care system and ask them to put forward their best ideas about how we bring down costs and expand coverage for American families."

You can watch the first one streamed from Michigan at HealthReform.gov at 2pm ET, and in the meantime you can submit your own ideas and questions for the forums, find dates and locations, and learn what people in your own state had to say during the community discussions that took place during the Presidential Transition

Deb Price of the Detroit News describes Joyce Shilakes, a local social worker and breast-cancer survivor, who was involved in those discussions and who will speak at the forum today:

"I deal with people on a daily basis trying to fund their health care," Shilakes said.

"They are not able to afford their treatments, their medications. They are juggling that with household bills -- heat, food," she added.

The result, she says, is that people don't comply with physician-recommended doses of medication, because they can't afford it. One of her clients refused to have a lump checked in her breast -- despite a history of breast cancer in her family -- because she had no medical insurance.

Shilakes and her husband Mark have seen the importance of good coverage.

Her cancer treatment bills -- paid for by GM -- topped $100,000. Husband Mark, a General Motors staff research technician, who has both of them on his health care plan, was also diagnosed with cancer and needed treatment.

"With the state of things in the auto industry, we don't know whether he is going to have a job. If he loses his job, which provides our health care, we'll be without coverage," she said.

Every community in the country has stories like hers, and these forums will give those stories a chance to be heard -- and even more importantly start the process of helping to fix what’s broken.

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"It feels different already"

Posted by Jesse Lee on March 11, 2009 at 8:48 AM EDT

Last week, in addition to nomiating Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the President appointed Nancy-Ann DeParle as the new director of the White House Office for Health Reform. DeParle has seen the health reform fight from virtually every perspective, and she hits the ground running today, taking to the op-ed page of the Boston Globe to give her perspective on why the drive for health reform can be successful now after so many decades of frustration:
As a participant in the 1993-'94 health reform effort, I can say that this time, it feels different already.

Thursday's forum participants came from all sides of the debate. They were Democrats and Republicans; members of Congress and constituents; businesses and labor unions; hospitals, doctors, patients, and insurance companies. People who worked to pass healthcare reform a decade ago strategized with those who worked to defeat it. And while they certainly didn't all agree on every aspect of how to fix the system, they all agreed that the one thing we cannot do is continue on the current course.

Fifteen years ago, many felt that if they couldn't have exactly the change they wanted, their second choice was no change at all. Last week, there were no defenders of the status quo. More than one Republican member of Congress agreed with the principles the president laid out for reform. Even a representative of the insurance companies that famously played such a huge role in killing reform in the 1990s pledged the industry's cooperation this time around.

Read the whole thing by all means, and if you missed the Forum last week don't worry, you can still watch the President's opening and closing discussions, see the slideshow, revisit the liveblog, or just stay tuned for the Regional Forums happening over the next month or so.

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Slideshow: Forum on Health Reform – and next steps

Posted by Jesse Lee on March 6, 2009 at 2:50 PM EDT
As always, White House Photographer Pete Souza captured the day in a way nobody else could:
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White House Forum on Health Reform

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Bringing key stakeholders together with full transparency, a major step for health care reform.

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But as important a step as yesterday was, there is a long way to go. The process will now fan out across the country, with a new series of Regional White House Forums on Health Reform which will be hosted by Governors in their states and will include doctors, patients, policy experts and everybody in between. The regional forums, which will be in California, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Vermont over the coming weeks, will be open conversations across ideological and partly lines that build off of what was learned in the forum yesterday, with a video from President Obama to kick them off.

"Health care reform is a fiscal imperative," President Obama said. "Skyrocketing health care costs are draining our federal budget, undermining our long-term economic prosperity and devastating American families. The time for reform is now and these regional forums are some of the key first steps toward breaking the stalemate we have been stuck in for far too long. The forums will bring together diverse groups of people all over the country who have a stake in reforming our health care system and ask them to put forward their best ideas about how we bring down costs and expand coverage for American families."
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Live-blogging the White House Forum on Health Reform

Posted by Jesse Lee on March 5, 2009 at 2:03 PM EDT

We asked Rebecca Adelman of the Department of Health and Human Services, which today unveiled HealthReform.gov, to give us an inside look at the forum as it happens.
The President's Opening Remarks

1:00: The media is filing in to the East Room as we close in on the start of the Forum on Health Reform. Guests are just beginning to arrive in the Grand Foyer, where they are receiving a copy of the Report on Health Care Community Discussions being presented to the President this afternoon. More on the contents of the report soon!

1:07: In the last ten minutes, the Grand Foyer has filled with members of Congress, health care experts and physicians, business owners, insurers, and everyday Americans - all with a stake in the health reform effort. The energy is building as guests make their way into the East Room.

1:09: The President just entered the room joined by Policy Director Melody Barnes, and Travis Ulerick, a firefighter and EMT who held a community discussion in his hometown of Dublin, Indiana.

[Ed. Note: Watch the President live-streamed here.]

1:15: Travis Ulerick tells the assembled group that the time is now to reform our health system. He thanks President Obama for challenging him to get involved - he held a discussion in his community in January that grappled with the problems in our health system, and submitted suggestions for reforming the system to the President's health care team. Travis was one of over 30,000 Americans who held community discussions on health care over the holidays.

[Ed. Note: Read about discussions in your state at HealthReform.gov]

1:20: President Obama greets the packed house, saying "This was the hottest ticket in town." The President's first address at the Forum is unambiguous that we cannot delay health reform: "Our goal will be to enact comprehensive health reform by the end of this year."

1:25: Before the group heads to breakout discussion sessions on the subject, the President says he believes this time around the effort to reform the health care system is different: "this time the call for reform is coming from the bottom up."

1:30: The President concludes his first address to the forum guests, telling everyone to get to work: "this time there is no debate about whether all Americans should have quality, affordable health care - the only question is how?"

[Ed. Note: Few people explain the problems the country faces on health care better than Travis Ulerick, not because he's a leading political advocate, but because he lives those problems. We took some video of him and his town, it's a must-watch.]

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Breakout Sessions

2:07: Now I'm sitting in a breakout session in the Executive Office building. It's quite a group - former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, Marian Wright Edelman, Senators Rockefeller, Bingaman and Wyden, are among the participants. The group is moderated by Larry Summers and HHS's Neera Tanden.
[Ed. Note: We're pushing it to capacity but you can watch breakout sessions at the same live-stream link.]

2:20: US Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue addresses the panel, saying there is a "vigorous understanding" that improvement is needed and health care costs need to be lower. It's an intense discussion, but productive.

2:32: On to the 3rd floor of the Executive Office building to another panel. Moderating this discussion are Valerie Jarrett and OMB's Zeke Emanuel. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Senators Chris Dodd, Robert Bennett, Debbie Stabenow, and Bernie Sanders are among the 22 panelists. Chip Kahn of the Federation of American Hospitals and Pfizer's Jeff Kindler are also part of the discussion.

[Ed. Note: Watch that breakout at this link]

2:50: I keep coming back to the report that Travis Ulerick presented to the President earlier this afternoon. As background, over the holidays, then President-elect Obama called on Americans to hold community discussions on health care. Over 9,000 Americans signed up to host in all 50 states - over 30,000 Americans attended a discussion near them. The groups submitted reports to the President's health care team listing their concerns about the system and their suggestions for reform. The responses from around the country were summarized and analyzed in the report. And today, seven Americans who participated in these discussions are joining us at the White House today. There are a lot of "stakeholders" here at the Forum, but I have a sense that having those people here who engaged just as a way of standing up with their community keeps everybody grounded by realizing that every oridinary person is a "stakeholder" in this discussion.

[Ed. Note: Read the report in full (pdf)]

3:05: I just entered another one of the five breakout sessions as Sister Carol Keehan from the Catholic Health Association was passionately addressing her fellow panelists about the need for reform. Budget Director Peter Orszag and Secretary Shinseki are moderating.

[Ed. Note: Watch that breakout here. You can also find the OMB fact sheet on the budget for HHS here (pdf).]

3:16: Dan Danner from the National Federation of Independent Businesses urged Orszag's panel to pay special attention to the voices of small business owners in the health reform debate, who are struggling to insure their workers because of skyrocketing costs. Danner told the lawmakers, including Congressmen Patrick Kennedy, Eric Cantor, and Senator Barbara Mikulski that "The status quo is not acceptable."

3:25: Ron Pollack from Families USA just closed Orszag's panel. He stressed to the assembled members of Congress that President Obama's budget was the first important step in helping make health coverage affordable. Now we're heading back to the East Room where the President will again address the group and take questions.

The President's Wrap-up Session

3:50: It's another meeting of the health care minds in the White House Grand Foyer - We're all heading into to the East Room now. The President will join the full group shortly to recap what we discussed and achieved this afternoon.
4:05: Everyone is seated - the President will enter any minute. This time the East Room is set up in a town hall style format, with seating on all sides of the podium. Sitting in the first row behind the President's podium are the 7 everyday Americans who hosted health care discussions in their hometowns.

4:09: The President and surprise guest Senator Ted Kennedy were just introduced and walked in to the East Room together. The whole room leaps to their feet and erupts in cheering, the President introduces the Senator as "Sir Edward Kennedy" as the cheers subside. The two receive another sustained standing ovation.

4:20: The President passes the microphone to Senator Kennedy, who said "the time for action is now." He said he looked forward to being a footsoldier in the reform effort and firmly stated: "This time we will not fail." The room erupts in applause again.

5:15: The President closed with some marching orders - he asked the groups to stay involved, he promised a summary report describing the views aired today, and stressed it was time to move aggressively to achieve health care reform. He then addressed the notion that we are taking on too much in attempting reform this year. He said when times were good - when the economy was better and we were not at war, we failed to get it done. President Obama said there is always a reason not to do it - and he could think of no better time than now. Everyone stood and cheered as the President shook hands with participants and the event concluded/

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