OpenForum – a blog by the Health and Human Rights community

Lately, media coverage of town hall meetings to discuss health reform have focused largely on the disruptions and protests occurring at them, overlooking much of the information lawmakers have attempted to convey to the public on the urgency and importance of reform. Public forums are important and serve a purpose, but given these disruptions and the violence (threatened, implied, and enacted) that have regularly occurred at recent town hall meetings, a new tactic may be in order. Press conferences such as the one I recently organized in Seattle, Washington, may be an underutilized approach in moving health care reform forward. A press conference allows public officials to make their points without disruptions intended to distract rather than inform. Here’s a sampling of what went on:

I spent much of my life working in the non-profit sector, only recently deciding to try my hand at working inside the “system.” I designed a health reform project for the King County Board of Health based upon international human rights principles and was able to secure a consulting position through which I assisted board members in advocating for them with the general public, health organizations, and members of the state and federal legislature. It wasn’t easy, and it continues to be an education. As I describe in my upcoming article in Volume 11, Number 1 of Health and Human Rights, working to persuade elected officials to adopt and enact human rights concepts often requires finding ways to make them look good for doing so.

Our recent press conference provides a good example of how these dual goals were met throughout the project. The press conference both highlighted the chair of the board of health and promoted health and human rights standards; because I was a county consultant, I didn’t have to do it alone — I had access to the county communications team, the county press conference room, and county media facilities (TV and internet).

In order to make the event press worthy, I brought together the chairs of the boards of health from five other counties (all of whom are elected officials). These six counties together represent over 60% of the state population and, as provided in the press release, the health of over 4 million people. My belief was that a joint statement from a group representing such a significant proportion of the state population would be of greater interest to the media and the public.

To prepare for the conference, I worked with the public health staff in each county to have their respective boards accept King County’s health reform principles (which incorporate international human rights standards), select the speakers, and prepare the talking points.

The King County Board chair, King County Council member, Julia Patterson, introduced and welcomed everyone to the conference. She spoke to why local government engagement in health reform was essential, and she described the board’s health reform principles. She also stated that local governments wanted health reform this year and that reform should address community health and the underlying determinants of health, not just medical care. Each board member expanded upon this — by commenting on specific public health programs, telling compelling stories about their constituents, or speaking philosophically about how health care was a public good that should not lend itself to profit making.

To supplement these statements, I prepared a list of frequently asked questions on health reform and suggested answers for each speaker. We put together a press packet that contained information about public health and human rights principles, a copy of a letter in support of health reform signed by the participants and sent to federal lawmakers, a list of the county legislation supporting health reform, and a list of effective, community-based health programs in each county.

The conference received good press coverage. Television, radio, and print media from Seattle attended the event, and media from other counties participated by speaker phone. Questions from reporters were as expected: Why should local governments be interested in federal health reform; why would local governments be taking on a “partisan” issue when health boards were non-partisan; and why would community-based interventions have an impact on individual health?

Through answering these questions, the board members were able to provide those present, and ultimately the general public, information and education about health and health care reform without the disruptions and fear mongering that have been so prevalent at town hall meetings. They were also able to explain how their collective concern about community and individual health had brought them together, across party lines and across the region, to promote health reform.  The outcome was three clips on local TV stations, two radio stories, two internet publications, and three newspaper articles throughout the six counties.