Today’s White House Summit on Health Care Reform was, of course, a political event, not a policy exercise. That’s an observation rather than a criticism. Successful passage of health care reform will have much more to do with skilled political strategy than good public policy.

That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to share my two cents on what seems to be missing. Amid the media frenzy over the event and the myriad public statements released by stakeholders all over the health care industry, I’m still waiting for someone to say (something to the effect of): “If we want to reform health care delivery, we need to find meaningful ways to engage consumers with the right information at the right time.”

I’m not talking about setting aside a bucket of tax-free cash and putting consumers out on their own. Rather, there needs to be an emphasis on creating meaningful, useful, understandable information that meets the individual needs of a diverse population.

To be sure, I haven’t had much time to sift through the posturing…uh…I mean, public statements. So I may yet be pleasantly surprised to find some who really “get it.”

So far, of the public statements I have read or heard, the most on-target has been from Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI). He stressed patient-centered care, preventive medicine and a holistic approach to addressing health care needs.

I hope that in the coming days, more statements will surface that address the concerns I describe above. If readers of this blog know of any, please post in the comments.

The politics are important in order to get something done. But the focus on consumer needs is essential to make sure that — if something does get done –it actually improves the health care delivery system.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 11:20 pm and is filed under Engaging Consumers, Health Care Reform, Inside the Beltway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.