Invited, but Unexpected
Obama's transition team has extended an open invitation to all Americans to participate in community discussions about health care reform over the next 2 weeks. It's a chance for the average citizen to air grievances and offer solutions to improve the health system, which-if all goes as planned-will be reported back to the President-elect.
But it looks like health care stakeholders are all too eager to get in on ground-level reform. According to reports, insurance plans, drug companies and medical associations are urging doctors, representatives and patients to attend community meetings. Some are reportedly hosting discussions, which has raised concern that the voice of the people will quickly be drowned out by soapbox dribblings and padded patient testimonials by those who already have a hand in the health care cookie jar.
In the spirit of diplomacy, or to avoid giving a public kiss-off to industry bigwigs, Obama's transition team is welcoming stakeholder attendance at meetings-occupations aside, they are community members and health care consumers, after all. If meetings are conducted as intended, there should be no problem; informed and inquisitive attendees will generate lively discussion about the current state of health care and how to get it on track to improvement. In fact, the open forums may benefit from the inside knowledge stakeholders have of the industry-the average citizen may even leave with a better understanding of why America's health care system is so darn hard to fix.
The problem, however, is that any stakeholders who attend the meetings need not identify their health care-related affiliations. So that dude arguing against lower pharmaceutical costs may be a rep from Pfizer, and while you value his opinion as a concerned neighbor, his view may be skewed by employee allegiance-unbeknownst to you, of course. I consider it a "wolf wearing a sheepskin" situation; if stakeholders want in on the discussion, no problem-just don't pretend to be an ordinary member of the flock. If community members want to be clueless, they can pull the wool over their own eyes.