Empowering Consumer Tribes In Health Care

We’ve been living with the Affordable Care Act for over three years now. The past three years were a perfect opportunity to educate the public about what health care reform actually is and the “value proposition” it provides. Most of the provisions of the ACA that will impact most Americans are just now coming up- and unfortunately, most of the American public has no clue. The value proposition and the roles of all the stakeholders in the new system were never clearly defined. We were too focused on fighting it rather than try to figure out the way to make sure it works.

“Consumer engagement” is another of the many buzzwords being thrown around in the new health care+

nomenclature. Engagement to health care is about getting people to do what health care wants them to do. In the current health care world, engagement is a transaction. Real engagement is about commitment and doing what is right.

Most of the general public agrees something needs to be done to fix the health care system in America. As we have been arguing for over 100 years the disagreement comes from how best to fix it.

 Consumer engagement is not just taking part in a transaction to participate in a wellness program because they are being paid or enrolling in the health insurance exchange to buy health insurance. Consumer engagement is about understanding that health care is now a social and economic issue in this country that needs to be addressed, and everyone needs to be on board to make it happen. Everyone.

With the lack of consumer trust in employers, government, and the health care system itself, individuals are looking for leadership to help guide them to do what they know needs to be done. In Seth Godin’s book, “Tribes,” he defines leadership as the ability to transform a “shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for change.” We have no leadership for the individual consumer in health care today. We simply have transaction managers. Transaction managers may do some things to get people to do what they want- but they won’t reach everyone that needs to be reached, and certainly won’t get individuals engaged.

Godin argues that good things happen when “tribes” have the leadership and shared vision to change the way things are. Crowds are simply tribes without a leader. Today, health care consumers are simply a large crowd seeking/begging for some leadership. When they get the leadership, many will become much more engaged than they are today.

Godin states, “The movement happens when people talk to one another, when ideas spread within the community, and most of all, when peer support leads people to do what they always knew was the right thing.”

Especially today, we need a consumer movement to begin in health care. Unfortunately, consumers are in dire need of a trusted leader they can rely on to share the vision, the goals, and the purpose of reforming our health care system- for everyone, not just a select few. When they have that leader, the movement will begin, and consumers will become engaged in the ways health care needs them to be engaged. They will change from a crowd to a tribe with a passionate vision for doing what is right.

The consumer leaders to create the engaged tribe won’t come from government, or employers, or health insurance companies. They will come from within the existing crowed- we just need to find them and provide the tools they need to do what they do best- facilitate the change that is needed.