Forum gives residents voice in shaping new health policies

Southwest Virginia residents had a chance Tuesday to share their ideas about how to best fix the country’s health care system and pass them along to President-elect Barack Obama and members of his incoming cabinet.

Appalachia resident Debbie Smith hosted a town forum discussing the topic Tuesday at the Appalachia Town Hall. The event was designed to collect people’s ideas about health care and forward them to Obama’s incoming administration.

“Health care is one of Obama’s big interests and he wants to hit the ground running with it,” Smith said before the forum started. “They’ve just asked people to have these meetings and feed the information back to them.”

Smith is one of about 8,000 volunteers from across the United States who are hosting these forums, said Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the Obama administration’s transition team. Each host has been asked to discuss health care with their friends and community members, fill out some surveys and upload a video of the meeting to the transition team’s Web site, Psaki said.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, whom Obama’s tapped to be next secretary of health and human services, and his staff will review each of the videos and use them to craft a new health care policy.

“Sen. Daschle and Obama recognize we need to have the help of the American people to change the system,” Psaki said, adding that health care will be a top issue on the administration’s agenda when Obama takes office in January. Daschle has personally attended some of these forums, she said, including one held at an Indiana fire house and one Tuesday at a nursing home in Washington, D.C. But, Psaki said, a scheduling conflict kept him from making it to Appalachia.

At the Congress Heights Senior Wellness Center in Washington, D.C., Daschle listened Tuesday to the ideas of about 25 people, who outlined the problems they’ve confronted with the health care system.

“It’s conversations like this that put us on the right track,” Daschle told the audience. “It’s discussions like this that give us a better understanding of how it should be done.”

Daschle said lawmakers will be more likely to take up health reform if there is enough pressure from voters. In a book published earlier this year, he urged the next president to quickly capitalize on the good will that comes with a new administration. He said meetings like the ones held Tuesday will add to the sense of urgency.

“It will lead to members of Congress taking note. It will lead to governors taking note,” Daschle said in an interview. “It’s going to lead to a greater degree of commitment on the part of elected people.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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