Taking The Nation's Pulse With CodeBlueNow!

Kathleen O'Connor, the founder and CEO of CodeBlueNow!, is serious about health care reform. The consumer advocate is conducting a survey she calls the "CodeBlueNow! Pulse" that gathers people's attitudes about health care reform. You can take the survey online right now at the following link:

http://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=788175

The survey takes no more than 15 minutes to complete, your answers are confidential and your identity is not tracked.

Here's a 4-minute video from YouTube in which Ms. O'Connor explains the CodeBlueNow! Pulse? and the organization's mission:

O'Connor was a guest columnist in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at the end of last week. She began by reminding us that the call for reform is not a new thing, citing the 1932 Report of the Committee on the Cost of Health Care. A wide variety of proposed solutions have failed over the intervening years.

The vision O'Connor presents has several important underpinnings, including universal coverage, emphasis on prevention, transparency within the industry about costs and benefits (especially in situations involving complex health decisions), and greater accountability in the health care industry.

Ms. O'Connor delivers a call to action for the voting public to become informed by facts rather than talking points and to take health care out of the hands of vested interests and politicians.

Our voice -- the public's voice -- hasn't been heard over the choruses profiting from the status quo. The complexity of our health care system is held up as a key reason the public cannot solve the problem -- "it's too complex."

But it's not. The complexity charge is an excuse to maintain the status quo, shouted by the foxes guarding the hen house.

More consensus exists than politicians and pundits lead us to believe. Our CodeBlueNow! Pulse® results from Iowa and Washington state (two very different states politically) clearly show there is astonishing agreement on some core values and key elements. We offer these visions and values as a starting point to create "The Voters' Health Care Platform." We must start with a vision and core values and build consensus along the way. This is a proven path to change with any social movement.

Yankee ingenuity, "can-do" attitude, spirit of innovation -- these are all iconic traits of the American culture. If we can harness those traits in the battle for health care reform, our odds of creating a uniquely American system of universal health care increase exponentially.

The CodeBlueNow! reports linked above show that a consensus at the public level is not lacking in this matter. I will continue to report as they gather and release more data.

SOURCE: "It's time to speak up on health care" 01/25/08
SOURCE: "CodeBlueNow!"