The Louisiana Business Group on Health has launched a statewide effort to promote changes to the state health care system, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. According to Butch Passman, CEO of the group, the effort seeks to prompt discussions on major health care policy areas, such as cost shifting; expansion of health insurance; quality of care and benefits; purchasing pools and similar arrangements; special needs programs; the safety net system; medical malpractice and the practice of defensive medicine; and provider license and scope of practice issues.
The group has established a public policy work group to address the issues. Members of the work group include health insurance executives, lobbyists, state officials, think tank representatives, employers, consumer groups, universities, hospitals and an American Indian tribe. The work group established 13 "policy point" teams to discuss areas for changes to the state health care system.
Julia Kennedy, chair of one of the teams, said, "It's such an unlikely group of bedfellows, that bringing people to some kind of consensus on what the issues are and what the real challenges are that we're facing is just going to be a huge step forward." She added, "Hopefully, this will help us launch the discussion into the underinsured and just the challenges that small businesses in particular face in providing coverage" (Griggs, Baton Rouge Advocate, 11/25).
WHO Commission
In related news, the World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health might use New Orleans as a laboratory to study whether improvements in community health can help address some health problems associated with poverty. The commission has made no commitments to New Orleans, but commission directors met last week with Mayor Ray Nagin and Kevin Stephens, director of the city health department, to tour areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Commission Chair David Satcher said that policymakers often attribute health problems in places such as Louisiana -- which has high rates of obesity, diabetes and infant mortality -- to a lack of access to physicians, nurses and hospital beds. Satcher added that those factors do not tell the whole story and that the commission seeks to encourage policymakers to address the underlying social factors that might predispose some individuals to health problems. "The point we're trying to make is that the need to target social determinants of health, including housing, education, working and learning conditions, whether people are exposed to toxins," Satcher said, adding, "We believe New Orleans illustrates that point better than any place we can think of right now."
Evangeline Franklin, deputy at the city health department, said, "We see this as an opportunity for partnership with some extremely smart people worldwide who agree that the agenda of community health -- safe neighborhoods, the availability of healthy food, access to good employment -- is key for making this city not just recover, but thrive" (Moran, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 11/21).
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