I am hopeful we will have our online Discussion Forum this week.  We are also planning on starting in person discussion groups this month, as well. So, where shall we start our discussion? 

I will be bold enough to suggest that we assure that a majority of Americans believe we need to cover everyone – that we agree on Universal Coverage.  Our data and other polls show that is a save assumption to make.  How we manage and pay for those benefits is the issue. 

One theme has consistently emerged when it comes to health care benefits: focus on prevention and wellness over high tech cures.  I think it would be a productive discussion to focus on prevention and what that would mean for a benefit package for everyone and how we would reward physicians for focusing on health rather than relying on them exclusively to fix our ailments.

Right now, no money changes hands unless a doctor does something to fix us or we have an annual exam. 

So, what would a system look like if we focused on health promotion and disease prevention?  What benefits would be covered and how would we compensate physicians? 

Cheers and more later.  Kathleen O'Connor

P.S. My apologies for the disrupted blog.  My laptop hard drive crashed just as I was leaving town for the Mayo Symposium, which crippled my online access and capability. 

I am now back on target with a new hard drive and ready access to the internet.