Health Reform

II. Participation in Health Care Community Discussions

B. Who Participated in Health Care Community Discussions

Health Care Community Discussion hosts submitted over 3,276 group reports to the Change.gov reporting Web site. Almost three-fourths of the reports (72%) could be categorized according to the majority of participants. Of these reports, over three-fourths were attended by a majority of everyday Americans, 16 percent were attended by a majority of health care providers, and 8 percent were attended by a majority of members of advocacy organizations.

Looking at participants from Health Care Community Discussions that submitted group reports, more people in Southern and Western, rural, and high-income communities participated in the Health Care Community Discussions relative to their population. About 63 percent of participants – nearly 20,000 – were in Health Care Community Discussions in the South and West. About 8 percent of participants attended town meetings in rural areas. A relatively low percentage of participants attended Health Care Community Discussions that occurred in low-income communities. (See Figure 1 and Appendix C for a detailed table on Survey respondents.)

Group reports also provided details on the participants of their Health Care Community Discussions:

A Health Care Community Discussion in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, self-reported that it consisted of six small business owners, three physicians (two self-employed), a nurse in a small medical office, a recently unemployed professional, an employed professional, a self-employed therapist, two secretaries, and an elementary school art teacher. The individuals ranged in age from 24 to 65.
A North Plainfield, New Jersey, Health Care Community Discussion of 10 participants was comprised of grant writers, social science researchers, union officials, educators, and nurses.
In Sioux City, Iowa, a group of 14 participants (9 men and 5 women) included three business executives, an engineer, two infectious disease physicians, a cardiologist, two emergency room physicians, a retired nurse, a radiologist, two family practice physicians, and a nurse practitioner specializing in wound care.
A retired couple, a working couple, a small business owner, a professional, a teacher, a newly unemployed person (one week out of a job), and an individual who had been unemployed for over two months attended a Health Care Community Discussion in Redondo Beach, California.