Lawrence Journal-World: Dole hopes health care forum will stimulate bipartisan action
Published By: Lawrence Journal-World
July 31, 2008
Mark
Vierthaler
What exactly
does health care reform mean?
More
accessible doctors? Cheaper
treatment?
If nothing else, former Sen.
Bob Dole hopes Monday’s health care forum gives
political leaders an idea what people think
about when they worry about the country’s
health care system.
“You get kind of a
taste of what the problems, what the priorities
are,” he said in a phone interview from his
Washington, D.C., office. “We need to find a
way not just to spend more money on the
problem, but how to institute some reforms that
will lower the cost.”
The 12:30 p.m. to
5 p.m. forum at the Dole Institute of Politics
is designed to not only pick the brains of
regional health care experts, but also to
solicit written input from those
attending.
The forum comes as part of
the Bipartisan Policy Center’s health care
initiative, a group effort between Dole and
former Sens. Tom Daschle, George Mitchell and
Howard Baker to goad Congress into acting on
health care reform.
Dole said the
gargantuan issue of health care, coupled with
the massive amounts of people affected by
reform, made it a subject that had to be
elevated above partisan
bickering.
“Bipartisanship generally
works well, particularly in major policies,” he
said. “I think health care would attract a lot
more support from people if they knew both
parties were behind it.”
Monday’s forum,
which Dole will mediate, will host three
panels: teaching patients to access and use
high-value health care, encouraging preventive
care and healthier lifestyles and meeting the
needs of rural communities.
Eileen
McMenamin, spokeswoman for the policy center,
said the forums will consist of health care
experts from the Midwest, including Kansas,
Missouri and Indiana. A select number of people
received invitations to the forum, she said,
and any remaining seats will be given to the
public on a first respond, first served
basis.
Members of the public interested
in attending may contact the Bipartisan Policy
Center at lpforum@bipartisanpolicy.org
