Health Reform

Notes

1 The Moderator Guide is available at the HHS Web site hosting this report, http://www.HealthReform.gov.

2 The Participant Guide is available at the HHS Web site hosting this report, http://www.HealthReform.gov.

3 The questions included:

1) Briefly, from your own experience, what do you perceive is the biggest problem in the health system?

2) How do you choose a doctor or hospital? What are your sources of information? How should public policy promote quality health care providers?

3) Have you or your family members ever experienced difficulty paying medical bills? What do you think policy makers can do to address this problem?

4) In addition to employer-based coverage, would you like the option to purchase a private plan through an insurance-exchange or a public plan like Medicare?

5) Do you know how much you or your employer pays for health insurance? What should an employer’s role be in a reformed health care system?

6) Below are examples of the types of preventive services Americans should receive. Have you gotten the prevention you should have? If not, how can public policy help?

7) How can public policy promote healthier lifestyles?

4 The Presidential Transition Team sent an e-mail to individuals who had signed up to host a Health Care Community Discussion informing them of the January 4, 2009 deadline.

5 All of the Health Care Community Discussion group reports are available on the HHS Web site hosting this report, http://www.HealthReform.gov.

6 A full list of these codes is available on the HHS Web site hosting this report, http://www.HealthReform.gov.

7 See “Obama Transition Team Holds Health Care Meeting At UCF: President-Elect Wants Citizens’ Opinions On Health Care Reform,” WESH Channel 2 NBC News (December 21, 2008), available at http://www.wesh.com/ news/18331750/detail.html?rss=orl&psp=news; Luis Zaragoza, “UCF to host forum aimed at getting public comment on health care problems, solutions,” Orlando Sentinel (December 19, 2008), available at http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2008/12/ucf-to-host-hea.html; and Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala, “Residents Share Health Care Nightmares at Obama-Inspired UCF Health Care Meeting,” UCF Newsroom (December 22, 2008), available at http://news.ucf.edu/UCFnews/index?page=article&id=0024004102082b6ee011e4c7dabcc007c12 &subject_id=0024004102975ad83011b2b83251c0c35.

8 The group reports for all four Health Care Community Discussion spotlights are available at the HHS Web site hosting this report, http://www.HealthReform.gov.

9 See, e.g., Gadi Schwartz and Joshua Panas, “Group Wants Input on Healthcare for Obama,” KOB.com NBC 4 (December 29, 2008), available at http://kob.com/article/stories/S722177.shtml?cat=516; “Health Care Listening Session on Tuesday,” Kennebec Journal (December 28, 2008), available at http:// kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5755698.html; “Obama Asks for Kansans Input,” KSNW NBC 3 (December 29, 2008), available at http://www.ksn.com/news/local/36851034.html.

10 “Obama Asks for Kansans Input,” KSNW NBC 3 (December 29, 2008), available at http://www.ksn.com/news/local/36851034.html.

11 Jason Morton, “Community, professionals voice concerns over health care,” Tuscaloosa News (December 31, 2008), available at http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20081231/NEWS/812300237/1005/LIVING.

12 Margaret Bauman, “Residents Say Biggest Health Care Problem is System,” Alaska Journal of Commerce (January 16, 2009), available at http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/011609/hea_20090116028.shtml.

13 Patrice St. Germain, “Reform of nation’s health care discussed,” The Southern Utah Spectrum (December 24, 2008), available at http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20081224/NEWS01/812240334.

14 Nanci Bompey, “Community Gets Involved in Health Care Reform,” Asheville Citizen-Times (January 5, 2009), available at http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901050316.

15 Frank X. Mullen, Jr., “Northern Nevadans Weigh In on National Health Care Reform,” Reno Gazette-Journal (January 4, 2009), available at http://www.rgj.com/article/20090104/NEWS/901040336/1321.

16 Kate S. Alexander, “Group Eyes Big Changes in Health Care,” The Herald-Mail (December 29, 2008), available at http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=213289&format=html.

17 Jim Adams, “An Invitation to Fix Health Care System Gets Crowds,” Star Tribune (January 11, 2009), available at http://www.startribune.com/local/north/37395759.html.

18 United States Department of Labor, “FAQs About COBRA Continuation Health Coverage,” http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.HTML.

19 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included a time-limited tax credit equal to 65 percent of the premium for COBRA coverage for people who recently lost their job and insurance.

20 The team developed “exclusion categories” to eliminate submissions that either did not pertain to the goals of the project or were not compatible with the analytical software. The “exclusion categories” were:

(1) Individual Comment: The submission contained an individual’s personal comments on health care (“I think that…”) and was not a group report from a Health Care Community Discussion.

(2) Off Topic: The submission contained comments unrelated to health care or to a Health Care Community Discussion. This category included submissions with statements such as “did not have event” or “the event was cancelled.”

(3) Policy Paper Not Associated With a Health Care Community Discussion: The submission was a policy white paper, a group’s Legislative agenda, or a policy paper not associated with the occurrence of a Health Care Community Discussion.

(4) Corrupt or Duplicative File: The submission was a corrupt file, unreadable, or was a second submission with a photo or survey results.

(5) Unconvertible PDF Files: PDF documents that were unable to be converted to text documents and thus unable to be analyzed by the software.

21 A full list of the 95 codes is available on the HHS Web site hosting this report, http://www.HealthReform.gov.

22 The analysis by region, population type, per capita income, and unemployment was done based on whether a document had a code or did not have a code. The number of times a code appeared in a single document was not taken into account, as the goal of the analysis was to compare unique documents to each other.

23 Three “exclusion” categories were used to eliminate survey outliers:

(1) large differences in the total number of responses for each of the three questions from the same host;

(2) single responses that indicated a group of 300 or more; and

(3) the same repeated response for all questions. Tens of thousands of survey responses were eliminated as a result.

Executive Summary and Highlights

I. Overview of Health Care Community Discussions

II. Participation in Health Care Community Discussions

A. Reasons for Signing Up and Participating