In this blog I want to explore core issues associated with the use of values as key factors bearing on efforts to reform the American health care system, as the effort in Washington has come to be known. Over the course of the past few years a number of key analysts, such as Norman Daniels, Jim Sabin, and Daniel Callahan have offered complex essays on the role that values play in shaping American health care policies. Recently the Hastings Center has added to this mix by publishing Connecting American Values to Health Care Reform. I have been following this discourse with some interest and would like to add to it perspectives that combine an interest in values with insights into policy development that I have acquired over the years as a political scientist and policy wonk. I hope that my contributions will facilitate conversations on these matters and advance our mutual understanding. I offer these posts as one citizen among many whose ideas may be of interest and value.
From time to time I will address issues associated with the way in which we speak to each other on these matters. I value what a trusted colleague, Charlie Palmgren, has labeled innovative interchange, a process of structured deliberation that has proven useful in a variety of decision making situations. I think that Charlie's approach, as I have adapted it to my own purposes, offers constructive ways to tone down our rhetoric and to interact with each other with greater respect. Clearly here I want to bring the value of respectful interaction to bear on the key questions of health care reform.
