About The Project > Strategic Dialogue > ChoiceDialogues > Community Conversations > Online Dialogue

Engaging the public, civic, business and political leaders in finding solutions on a state-by-state basis.

Over the past fifteen years, health care reform has never strayed far from the top of the public agenda. Leaders, employers and the public have become increasingly concerned about skyrocketing costs and limited access to quality care, and have begun to recognize the need for significant reforms in our health care system. But the public as well as many business and other leaders have only just begun to work through the complex choices and tradeoffs involved.

Voices for Health Care aims to help this process along by providing opportunities for Americans of all stripes to engage each other on the tough issues involved in fixing our health care system. We are focusing on three states - but this conversation will be helpful in other states and to the nation as a whole.

Voices for Health Care is a partnership among several organizations.

• The project is funded by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• Undertaken by Viewpoint Learning, a non-partisan company that designs and conducts specialized dialogues for business and public policy.
• Health care advocacy and research organizations in each state:
  • KS: Kansas Health Consumer Coalition & Kansas Health Institute
  • MS: Mississippi Health Advocacy Program (MHAP)
  • OH: UHCAN Ohio and the Health Policy Institute of Ohio

STEPS IN THE PROJECT:

1. Strategic Dialogues with health care, political, civic and business leaders. In these dialogues leaders worked together to identify key trends and changes shaping the health care situation, and to create several scenarios for reform to test with the public in ChoiceDialogues.
2. ChoiceDialogues with a representative sample of the public in each state. These day long dialogues developed deeper insight into the sort of health care reforms citizens want to see, what they will be prepared to support and under what conditions. ChoiceDialogues were conducted in Kansas, Mississippi and Ohio. To learn more about ChoiceDialogues, click here. Click here to see findings from each state as well as video highlights.
3. Interactive Briefings for leaders. In each state, we presented the ChoiceDialogue findings in Interactive Briefings for health care, political, civic and business leaders, many of whom had participated in the Strategic Dialogues. Discussion in these sessions focused not only on the substance of the findings but on ways to continue to engage the public, reach out to leaders and build on the results.
4. Community Conversations: A series of conversations about health care reform among members of the public. Members of the community - leaders, advocates, or concerned citizens - use a specially designed kit to conduct a structured three-hour dialogue around the future of health care in their state. Click here for information about community conversations near you.
5. Online Dialogue: In the fall, Americans will be able to discuss health care reform in a structured online format. This is more than a discussion board or chat room - the Voices for Health Care Online Dialogue will use an online format designed to help people work together to create sustainable solutions to difficult problems. Click here to learn more and register to participate.