National report on health reform guided by UNC alumna and professor

The report, Americans Speak on Health Reform: Report on Health Care Community Discussions, summarizes comments from the thousands of Americans who hosted and participated in Health Care Community Discussions across the country and highlights the need for immediate action to reform health care.

In December, then President-elect Obama called on the American people to host Health Care Community Discussions to assess the seriousness of the problems and identify solutions. More than 9,000 people signed up in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to host a discussion, and thousands more participated in these gatherings.

Jeanne M. Lambrew

Group reports from 3,276 community discussions and participant surveys from more than 30,000 people were collected, analyzed and summarized in the report. The costs of health care services and health insurance were the top concern about the health care system for 55 percent of participants. They also cited lack of emphasis on prevention, pre-existing conditions limiting insurance access, and the quality of care as key concerns.

Jennifer Cannistra, an analyst on the Presidential Transition Team and subsequently in the newly created Office of Health Reform led the project. School alumna Jeanne M. Lambrew, now director of the Office of Health Reform, also guided the project.

Dr. Thomas Ricketts

Advice and assistance on analysis of the survey questions were provided by UNC’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, under the leadership of Thomas Ricketts, UNC professor of health policy. Jennifer King, a doctoral student in the School’s Department of Health Policy and Management and a researcher at the Sheps Center, helped with the analysis.

Qualitative researchers Kelly Devers and her team at Virginia Commonwealth University and Shoshanna Sofaer at Baruch College School of Public Affairs worked on the qualitative components of the project.

The report is available on a new federal website dedicated to health reform: http://www.healthreform.gov/. Unveiled today, the website will allow Americans read the reports and testimonials by participants, share their thoughts about health reform with the Obama Administration, view hundreds of photographs documenting the meetings, and sign a statement in support of President Obama’s commitment to enacting comprehensive health reform this year.

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.