The Collaboration Health Care Elevator Speech

I’ve been asked many times over the years for the “elevator speech” for Collaboration Health Care. Honestly, I’ve sometimes been at a loss to respond because when I say, “I want to change the way the general population “thinks” about health care,” nobody cares.

Despite the different types of projects we have been involved in over the years, they seem to still boil down to the same thing- we’re still trying to change the way all of the stakeholders look at and think about health care. But still, nobody seems to look at it that way.

It’s still all about ROI, production, diagnosis, measurement, and all of the “transactional” aspects now involved with health care. It’s all about regulations and bureaucracy and following an established set of rules and processes as opposed to looking at the world a little different and trying to have a basic understanding of why all of this is necessary in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong. Measurement and accountability is important. We’re just now going to the extreme and don’t seem to be solving the problem.

Solving our health care cost crisis is not going to be solved in a partisan manner. The Affordable Care Act was a very partisan piece of legislation and needs to be modified. Repealing it is not the answer either. We need to have a basic framework in place we can all work from. We aren’t working from it together today.

And, most of the general population is confused. We’re more knowledgeable than we were before all of this health care talk started- but we’ve been informed from very partisan sources. We really don’t know who to believe.

Despite much of the population still indicating they are relatively satisfied with the way things are, there is a very rapidly growing segment saying they aren’t. More are feeling the affects the rising health care costs are having on their personal finances. And, it’s only going to get worse if something doesn’t change- and change fast.

Our health care costs eat up a substantial portion of our national budget and are a key component of our national debt. The “unfunded” liability (what isn’t paid for) for Medicare over the next several decades will reach $46 trillion. Health care costs have the real potential to be the final straw to bring down our economic foundation if they are not addressed.

So, I suppose the elevator speech should be changed; “Helping stakeholders change the way they think about health care” doesn’t seem to matter much to anyone.

How about, " Protecting our national and personal economic future by changing the way stakeholders think about and interact with the health care system- through education, information, partnerships, and dialogue.”?

It’s a little long, but maybe more folks will get it.