Reply #35: So this never happened?

[Born_A_Truman]

http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/index.html

In December 2008, the Presidential Transition Team invited Americans to host and participate in Health Care Community Discussions to talk about how to reform health care in America. Over 9,000 Americans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia signed up during the holiday season to host a Health Care Community Discussion and thousands more participated in these gatherings. Friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers, representing the views of both health care patients and providers, came together in homes, offices, coffee shops, fire houses, universities, and community centers with a common purpose: to discuss reforming the health care system.

After each Health Care Community Discussion, hosts were asked to fill out a Participant Survey and submit a group report to the Presidential Transition Team's Web site, www.change.gov ("Change.gov"), summarizing the group's main concerns and suggestions. Committed to bringing all Americans to the table, the Health Policy Transition Team and a group of dedicated volunteers read and analyzed, line-by-line, the 3,276 group reports submitted to Change.gov. This extensive and intense engagement of the public in policy development by the Federal government is unprecedented and historic, as is this study, which systematically analyzed the information generated by the Health Care Community Discussions.

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The Health Care Community Discussions are a first step in this Administration's commitment to an open and inclusive style of governance that allows all Americans to have a voice in our country's health reform efforts. This Administration recognizes that true reform comes from the grassroots up and promises that when Americans speak, the Administration will listen. These Health Care Community Discussions reflect the President's commitment to enlist the public in achieving a top priority: creating a health system that is affordable, accessible, and high-quality for all Americans.

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President Obama has encouraged all Americans to have a direct say in the effort to reform the health system. Individuals who participated in the Health Care Community Discussions rose to this challenge. These Health Care Community Discussions brought together people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from all walks of life – patients, doctors, business owners, and advocacy groups – who united around a common concern: the need to reform health care in America. The stories of hardships that emerged from the Health Care Community Discussions, and thousands of similar stories, affirm the need to reform America's broken health care system. The Health Care Community Discussions represent two related Administration commitments: to an open, inclusive style of governance that engages Americans in the policy process and to health reform that is directly responsive to the problems Americans face, the stories they share, and the solutions they offer.