Health Care Reform Update: Kudos to the Quad-City Times for Making Health Care Reform Real for Its Readers
by Alta Price, MD
When I sat down to Sunday morning breakfast with the
Quad-City Times, it just about knocked my socks off. Wow! Front page coverage and story after
story about how health care reform will impact real live people in my community.
The Quad-City Times interviewed local people with differing health care situations, detailing their problems with insurance, the costs they face, how health insurance determines their job choices, how they decide whether to buy insurance, and so on. Then they covered how the House bill or Senate bill would impact those individuals or families, describing individual mandates, subsidies, and so on, but bringing it down to a very real, accessible level by using these real life examples. They did a great job of including comments from Senator Grassley and Senator Harkin about issues that are more debatable, such as whether reform will lower or increase the cost of health insurance for the average person.
This is not the first time I have been impressed with the Quad-City Times coverage of health care reform. They have had excellent editorials, as well as guest opinion pieces by health care providers and others. Monday they had a great opinion piece, "Iowans need not fear Medicare changes", from the CEOs of Trinity Regional Health System and Iowa Health System, a network of 26 hospitals and group practices of physicians and clinics in Iowa. And they have published countless letters to the editor on health care reform.
Breakfast with the Quad-City Times is one of my cherished
morning rituals. Since I first started practice in
And I will also remember that when we struggled to get the word out to people about health care reform, a very complicated and controversial topic further confused by falsehoods promulgated by those with a stake in the status quo, it was my local paper that best educated the people in my community about the issue.
Check out the Quad-City Times website on health care reform to see what else they are doing. You can enter
your health care story there as well. I am curious – are any other
Alta Price is a physician practicing Pathology in Davenport, Iowa. One of the original Deaniacs, she stays involved with Democracy for America, Iowa, and the Quad Cities. She advocates for quality, affordable health care for all, primarily as a volunteer with Progressive Action for the Common Good (Health Care Reform Issue Forum). Watch for Dr. Price's Health Care Reform Update every Tuesday here on Blog for Iowa. E-Mail Alta Price
