Getting a voice

Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009 | 2:04 a.m.

As it drafts its proposals to improve health care, President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team is asking for the public’s help, encouraging people to meet and discuss the issue.

The Obama team asked for interested members of the public to gather to discuss their views and submit comments via the Web site change.org. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Obama’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, said about 8,500 meetings were held in the last two weeks of December.

“This is an indication of the degree of severity and concern that people have all over the country,” Daschle said.

The Obama transition team’s effort is similar to one undertaken in 2005 and 2006 by a panel set up by Congress, the Citizens Health Care Working Group. That group heard from 6,650 people at 84 meetings and received more than 14,000 responses to an Internet survey. The group drew on public comments to make a series of recommendations to improve health care, but those recommendations were never acted upon.

The Obama team is wisely including the public in the health care debate. Too often the public feels locked out of a process typically dominated by lobbyists from the health care industry. Those lobbyists have been able to stall substantial change to health care in America for years.

Daschle said public pressure should spur action. He said the public involvement “will lead to members of Congress taking note. It will lead to governors taking note.”

Because health care affects everyone, it is one of the most significant issues facing the country. People should be involved and should make their thoughts known. It is important that policymakers know what you think.