Press conferences: A new approach to educating the public on health reform
Roslyn Solomon | September 2, 2009 | 0 Comments
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.