WVIZ/PBS ideastream®: Ideas
Ideas is a series of special one-hour programs produced and presented by WVIZ/PBS ideastream®. Topics for each episode are guided by ideastream’s “Listening Project,” a series of surveys, town hall meetings and other community-focused activities. Subjects such as education, the economy and jobs, the environment, economic development, civic affairs, and health and human services are prominently featured. Each Ideas episode also serves as the keystone for a compilation of related programming on 90.3 WCPN, WVIZ/PBS and content on ideastream websites. The goal of this program series is to focus audience attention on an issue or topic of broad community interest. These stories, segments, and entire programs are distinguished by their depth and quality of journalism and the creative storytelling ideastream audiences have come to expect and appreciate.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Topics: Health
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Ideas: Community Health Forum
Airs August 27 at 9:00 PM
Re-airs August 30 at 3:00 PM
What’s keeping you from being healthier? Not enough or no insurance? Are you overwhelmed trying to navigate through the maze of doctors, procedures, and hospitals? Are you guilty of making unhealthy choices like too much junk food or not enough exercise? These are some of the concerns about health that will be explored in a new program on WVIZ/PBS ideastream called “ideas: Community Health Forum.”
WVIZ/PBS ideastream is convening a panel of citizens from across Northeast Ohio to discuss and deliberate their biggest concerns about health in Northeast Ohio. The conversation will touch on a number of specific themes including cost, access, navigation, and personal accountability.
In June, ideastream organized four community forums and invited health professionals including providers, advocates, government and community leaders, insurers, and academics to discuss health challenges, assets, and priorities in the region. Excerpts from these regional gatherings will be used to stimulate and guide the conversation among our citizen panelists.
ideastream’s Dan Moulthrop, host of Sound of Ideas served as moderator for the regional forums and will serve as host/moderator for this television special.
The goal of the forums and this television program is to develop a regional health agenda that can be used by health professionals and citizens as a means to improve health and wellness for Northeast Ohio residents.
Northeast Ohio is an area suffering disproportionately from lack of access and literacy on health. In a region where more people are employed in health fields than any other, and there are a wealth of social agencies, foundations, businesses and government entities devoted to healthcare, the community should be stronger. And as leaders in Washington discuss changes in the country’s health care system, Northeast Ohio needs to develop its own regional agenda. WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN ideastream ambition is to begin a thoughtful discussion on the issue to better educate and strengthen our community.
I found the Health Forum very interesting. My only suggestion is that you should have had the Financial Counselors and Billing Specialist included in the discussions. Having worked at the Cleveland Clinic, I am aware that many patients are being sent to see the Financial Counselors BEFORE they can even make an appointment to be seen or treated. This policy applies to patients that are from out of town, out of network and when your in-network insurer will not cover the visit or treatment based on the patient’s plan of coverage.
Michelle D. 11:15 AM 8/28/09I believe a large part of our poor health status is due to poor lifestyle. The processed food we eat is cheap but not nutritious. We eat poor food choices: hamburgers and fries vs. baked fish, fruits and vegetables. We consume too much and we get far too little exercise. Michael Moore filmed a documentary on health care in other countries and unwittingly showed himself as the unhealthy, overweight and future high cost U.S. patient while the people he interviewed from other countries were in considerably better average physical condition than U.S. citizens. This problem creates much of the problem with high cost and accessability issues by severly overtaxing our system vs. others. While there are many issues, solving this issue could go a long way to solving the overall healthcare problems and is not a subject of discussion.
Jim Kamer 3:14 PM 8/30/09Send questions and comments to ideas@ideastream.org.
Dear Dan:
Kurt A. Liske and Margaret G. liske 9:22 PM 8/27/09How do we maintain our health? To us the answer seems simple - in moderation whole grains,lots of fresh fruits and vegetables,eggs,basic dairy products (yogurt, milk and cheese),fish,chicken and minimal amounts of red meat. Include lots of aerobic exercise(walking,running,swimming,biking 6-7 hours a week).
The problem Americans face is compounded by the food industry and Madison Avenue. The latter hires the best and the brightest to convince us of what food processors want to sell us as necessary and nutritious, not to mention what we’re told to spray on our lawns. Visit any super market and check out the processed food isles (cereals,soft drinks, crackers, chips etc.);so many items’ ingredients are addictive in the amounts of sugar, and so many are consumed from a very early age. One out of four Medicare patients and one out of ten in the insured population are diabetic. Need we say more?
The food industry is not based on the premise of building healthy bodies and medical schools have very little to say about nutrition.
How do we change this?
We need to talk about it, and we thank you for this forum.
Most sincerely, Margaret and Kurt Liske