Take it or break it?
Wednesday, April 29 2009
Kevin, MD writes:
I’ve always maintained that patients will make or break health reform plans.
I tend to agree with Kevin, except that patients don’t “make” health reform plans. I know it’s a figure of speech, but the fact is that patients have no seat at the table; we are not part of the process. There is no organization or institution involved in health reform that represents patients and patients only (though lots of others claim to). And there’s no prospect of that changing. We’re too disorganized; there’s nobody – no organization or agency – that speaks for us.
So whatever comes out of health reform, our decision will be “take it or break it?” Do we accept the proposed reform, or send it back to the table for more work? If we send it back, it might be another 20 years before anyone is willing to touch health care again. Perhaps by then we’ll be part of the process, but in the meantime we’re not – and it’s a problem.
