Many thanks to the one hundred people who convened for the Center's third National Issues Forum on health care, this time at Busboys and Poets in Washington on Monday August 24.
One half of the participants in the August 24 forum afterward completed a survey, in which they named the most important issues to them, and the trade-offs they would accept in combination with their preferred outcome.
The respondents were most concerned, unsurprisingly, with resolving inequality of health care and controlling rising costs.
The focus of our survey research is to gauge not just the character of views held, but the depth of those opinions. For example, most of the survey respondents reported that they had moved well beyond a simple or basic awareness of the issues involved in health care reform. However, most were not ready to commit themselves to a particular health care reform solution. On average the respondents were two-thirds of the way to committing themselves. At this stage, most of them are weighing the pros, cons and trade-offs involved in health care reform proposals on the table.
Governor Howard Dean comes to Busboys and Poets at 14th & V on Tuesday, September 15, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm to talk about his new book on the obstacles to health care reform and what it will take to overcome them: Howard Dean's Prescription For Real Health Care Reform -- How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer. Dean argues that for real reform to happen, Americans must have the choice to either keep their existing coverage if they are happy with it, or have the option to select a public plan; and that America must continue to make key investments as President Obama has begun to make in health care information technology to reduce costs and improve the quality of care.
The event is free and open to all.
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