A Message from the President & CEO

REFLECTIONS — THE WORK UNDONE

If this had been a fight in the backyard, someone would have yelled “uncle” long ago. Like many Americans, I have grown weary of the mind-numbing futility surrounding the health reform debate.  It is not that I don’t have staying power—I’ve been working on this issue for more than 30 years.  The wearying part is all the talk, as opposed to action.

Our Healthiest State Campaign grew out of my desire to build real health reform momentum, and the latest political foray in D.C. has been a priority for our Campaign much of the past year.

However, it became clear last summer that the details of the reform legislation would fall far short of creating a blueprint to fundamentally improve the financing and delivery of health care that threatens to bankrupt our nation.  Our Campaign adjusted our expectations and focused on the parts of the legislation that offered greater economic security to Americans, those offering more health coverage and those that would stimulate major national advances around prevention.

As we rolled through the fall, Congress still showed no signs of rushing to either pass the bill or implement it quickly.  The delays only encouraged legislators to start adding all sorts of sweetheart deals to the legislation, exposing the legislative process for the sausage making factory that it is.  I don’t know why health reform would require Nebraska to get a special budget deal, do you?

And now that fall has turned to winter, the once slow pace has been reduced to a crawl and the legislation barely resembles the promise it once held. But that hasn’t stopped us from continuing to encourage Congress to move forward and pass something….quickly.  Our view on the national legislation was addressed well by our Policy Director in a recent commentary. It may be necessary to hold our nose as it moves forward, but move ahead it should.

But, we should not mistake this for a solution to our health problems.  Nor should we believe it will somehow unleash a stream of incremental shifts that will get us there.  Indeed, we have found little interest in D.C. to talk about reforms that would really hold our government and health care system accountable for such long-term shifts.  For example, setting clear and simple National Health Goals similar to our Healthiest State Report Card that would be the basis for measuring the success or failure of health reform, including a goal that speaks to the rising cost of care.

Even if health reform passes, many Americans will still be left out of the system—and we need to include everyone if we hope to build something fairer and more effective.  Whatever small role prevention may play will still leave us spending more than double what the rest of the industrialized world spends on medical care, with precious little left to invest in helping us get healthy as people.  This, despite the fact that more than half the factors that produce health relate to our own individual lifestyles and choices, while less than 10% is attributed to medical care.

Unless some new policy leadership floats down from the political heavens, we can be sure that Congress will punt on the need to truly reform the delivery and financing of health care services.  They may continue to toss out “pilot projects”, and speak to their long-term commitment to fixing the system, at least in their campaigns.  Most of the pilot ideas are ones that have been floating around in health policy circles for many years.  Some were included in the recommendations of a special commission formed to address the medical care cost crisis confronting our Nation..….back in 1932!

It is time to move this issue forward, not with more debate and political posturing, but action.  Last year, even before the reform bill got mired in its politics, our Campaign concluded that we should come up with a platform of action.  But not to shift our attention to Olympia in the hopes that politicians there would step up to the challenge, we had a different shift in mind.

Our idea is to put change in the hands of the people.  We’ve always been there in terms of policy.  Our Campaign is built on the work we did in 2003 to discern value and otherwise understand the publics view on health policies.  A good example is the strong agreement about the need for major advances in prevention.  We have also continued to reach out to individuals with ways to improve their health, whether through healthy living innovations like our website or challenges like the Governor’s Health Bowl.  In addition, we have worked with individuals across the state to spur healthy systems improvements through employee wellness at the workplace or local community health coalitions.
Now is the time to take this a step further.   It is just common sense that the one who cares most about your health, and how to improve it, is YOU.  Our aim is to support your desire for health, and shift your approach to help you take charge of your own health.

How? By providing you with the opportunity to build your own home – your own Health HoME.

We are building a checklist of categories and self selected tools that will help you to develop and take control over:

• My wellness plan
  
• My health resources
  
• My health partners
  
• My unexpected needs
  
• My call for real health reform

Sincerly,

Greg Vigdor