Panel asks Americans for health-care ideas

A working group formed by Congress to examine health care in America has published the results of its efforts thus far as a "Health Report to the American People."

Now panel members hope that individuals all over the country will contribute their thoughts, to build the foundation for recommendations that may be used to forge the framework of health-care reform. The goal? "Health care that works for all Americans," according to the working group.

Members want citizens to enter the discussion by e-mail, online, through letters or at community meetings — whatever it takes to convey their own stories and suggestions for improving a system that is in some ways among the best in the world, but in others sorely lets people down, according to the findings of the Citizens' Health Care Working Group.

Those contributions will be culled for suggestions and concerns.

"Based on what we hear over the next six months, the Working Group will write a citizens' road map of recommendations," to be released next May, said Jessica Federer of the working group's staff. That will be followed by a 90-day comment period, then the working group will present final recommendations to President Bush and the five congressional committees that must hold hearings on them in early fall.

"This initiative gives people a way to actually do something about the situation at hand. Instead of always talking about the problems, here is an initiative where the American people are being asked to get involved in finding solutions for Congress to hold hearings on," she said.

Since the full report was recently published online at www.citizenshealthcare.gov/healthreport/healthrep.php, "the responses so far have been pretty good," she said.

The group held several regional hearings while gathering information for the report, including one in Salt Lake City. As for what the members found, "It's a complicated story," the report says, "but here's the bottom line: We have serious problems to address," including sharply rising health care costs, shortcomings in the quality of care we receive and people who don't have access to care.

Americans spend more on health care than most industrialized countries and the costs are rising. Many Americans get care that is "neither the right care nor the best care." And millions of Americans can't afford medical care even when it's available, a problem that's getting worse, according to the report.