I'm not sure I know how to speak effectively to your generation. Recently I attended a meeting for seniors regarding health care, and it seemed well received. It was all outrageous marketing. There were big signs, name tags, logos, brochures, and baseball caps with logos. Afterwards there was a huge, ornate silver coffee urn and pastries. There were well-dressed speakers in suits, and young businesswomen looking earnest in their suits. There was a huge projection screen with graphics and site plans. There was even a very dramatic (though exceedingly corny) mid-meeting phone call about senior management approval of their plan. Do people really buy this stuff? I thought it was insulting. When questions from the audience were elicited, there were some probing questions. These were brushed aside by the presenters by saying that these needs were not included in Phase One of the project. After asking the community to participate to identify its health care needs, the presenters made it clear that they had already packaged a project to present. Millions of dollars of project was offered, for free, and everyone seemed pleased. What happened to critical thinking here?
This is not that type of meeting. There are no logos, no suits, no pitches, no baseball caps, no coffee. I will assume you've all had lunch by this hour. I will respect your intelligence and integrity by presuming that you can't be bought by glitz and give-aways. I won't even distribute my name and number.
I will only discuss my concerns, drawn from my personal experience and with an insider's knowledge, about what is happening in health care and how it affects you.
I also have a personal need to speak out about the wrongs I have seen. There are many in the health care field that have called to encourage me to speak out, but I could not convince them to stick their necks out and make this a panel discussion.
A friend of mine who is in the health care field and is a professor at ASU came up with a marvelous expression regarding HMOs. He said "Anyone who thinks that managed care is going to solve anything is either a fool, or is on the take." I would like you to remember that expression every time that someone tries to sell you a health plan or asks you to sign away your Medicare benefits to them. You will feel your critical thinking capabilities returning, and become stronger for it.