It's difficult to get away from our "re-form" issue as administrators and executive leaders in healthcare, isn't it? I cannot even get a haircut-without being asked the question of where I stand on the issue at hand. And, let me say for the record that my hairstylist and I are polar opposites on this issue, as we are on many political issues, but boy can he weild a mean scissors.
Folks-we live in the argument culture, but as it relates to the healthcare arena this is more than a simple argument. Unless you live off of the grid and have gone no contact, you or someone you know has a healthcare story. Let me shoot this through a different lens. When your child, spouse, mother, father, friend is sick-is there an argument? No. Sickness is sickness and no one likes to be sick. We are all in the business of supporting this bigger situation of how to handle the "sick", and how to best support the people who treat the sick.
A few blogs ago, and I'm sure in a post or two on the one of the communities I offered the the idea of becoming a critical consumer of the news and the media around you. One reason is everything has a bias (even PBS), even this blog. No one is neutral. Deborah Tannen, in a chapter she wrote entitled "Both Sides Come Out Fighting: The Argument Culture and The Press", states in reference to news events on television and cable that the media are simply reporting events, but she states, "the way events are reported shapes our thinking about them". Thus the need to become a critical consumer is even more important, especially as we consume the news regarding "re-form" in healthcare.
I listen to both sides or as many sides as I can find to the reform issue at hand. I subscribe to the Political Discussion member community and there is no doubt we have representation of a polarized membership here within MGMA. Disagreement is fine and fun. Recently, however, I took my media consumption to a new level. I started listening to C-Span on satellite radio (for you XM subscribers-channel 132) which broadcasts the debate on the House and Senate floors. I thought, to be fair-I would also view it on TV. I was quite surprised at the level of controlled civility during the healthcare debates. John McCain and John Kerry were debating healthcare reform back-to-back and what a contrast to how this pair is framed when they are invited guests on cable or network news. This didn't change my opinion on where I stand, but it did highlight the issue (healthcare re-form), versus the argument of who or what "side" of the isle is right or wrong.
As we all wait for the final decisions that will not just affect our personal careers, but everyone who consumes healthcare, remember that we don't need a "fight" to illuminate the issues of re-form. Passionate debate had a place in Aristletilian times and modern times. Whether you call healthcare reform debate entertainment or your life literally depends on what the outcome will be-consume carefully.