Health Care Reform Debate Must Include Public Input

Although 2007 "was supposed to be the year of 'health care reform' in California," most Californians have had only "minimal input ... into the most ambitious reform of the state's health care system ever attempted," a San Francisco Chronicle editorial states.

"Key players in Sacramento feared that (if) the complex issues being discussed there circulated in the public domain, they would immediately be pounced on and chewed up by competing parties," the editorial states.

To bring more citizens' views into the debate, a "high-tech version of a traditional town hall meeting" on Aug. 11 will collect opinions from 3,000 Californians statewide about provisions of various health care reform proposals under consideration, according to the Chronicle.

"When lobbyists exert undue influence over the legislative process, innovative ways must be found to make sure the people's voices are part of any debate," the editorial states (San Francisco Chronicle, 8/6).