[Ed. Note: This is a guest post from Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director at the Office of Health Reform and Counselor to the President, in response to comments from the health care community on LinkedIn regarding the challenges faced by health care professionals in their state]
Thank you for joining the discussion and sharing your thoughts on the health care challenges in your state. The President understands those challenges and has made it clear that health insurance reform must bring stability and security to Americans who have insurance today, provide affordable coverage to those who don’t, and lower the cost of health care to help our families, businesses, and government.
Many of the comments you posted online are similar to those we have heard from doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and other medical professionals across the county. You see firsthand the problems with our health care system – what happens when patients cannot receive the care they need because an insurance company has decided to drop or water down coverage, or when individuals do not have check-ups or preventive screenings because insurance companies do not cover them or they are uninsured. Dr. Joel commented that “our focus needs to shift to strategies of prevention and include incentives for healthier lifestyles.”
Some of you expressed concern about rising health costs. You are right. The rising cost of health care in this country is unsustainable. We are now spending roughly one in every six dollars on health care. If we do nothing, in 30 years, one out of every three dollars in our economy will be tied up in the health care system. Melissa S wrote that “my biggest concern is the cost associated with health plans.” Health care costs are rising more than three times faster than wages, and premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance for family coverage have risen 131 percent in the last ten years and went up five percent this year alone. One of the central goals of the President’s plan is to slow the growth rate of health care spending that is crushing families, businesses, and governments. Health insurance reform will accomplish this by increasing competition in the insurance market, wringing waste and fraud out of Medicare and Medicaid, and working to change our health care priorities to emphasize quality of care rather than quantity of services. Health insurance reform will limit what you have to pay out-of-pocket for health care and will do away with annual and lifetime caps on coverage.
Others wrote about patients who cannot move or change jobs because they have a pre-existing condition or simply cannot afford coverage on the expensive private insurance market. Dr. Anje V discussed “patients who have lost their insurance due to job loss.” Under the President’s plan, Americans will have the security of knowing they have options. People who are uninsured or are forced to seek coverage on today’s expensive individual market will be able to find affordable plans in the insurance exchange, a marketplace where you can shop for what is right for you. Insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny you coverage because you have a pre-existing condition, and they will be prohibited from cancelling your coverage when you get sick.
Several of you – including Frank W, a neuroradiology fellow – expressed concerns about the medical liability system. As part of the Administration’s ongoing effort to reform our health care system, we have listened to the concerns many have raised about the need to improve patient safety and to reform our medical liability system. President Obama recently directed Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to move forward immediately on an initiative to give states and health care systems the opportunity to apply for demonstration projects on medical liability consistent with certain goals and core commitments. You can read more about these demonstration grants here.
We appreciate the contributions of doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and other medical professionals around the country. You are on the front lines of the health care system and see every day how the problems with the current system are impacting you, your patients, and their families. Thank you for joining this discussion, and we look forward to hearing from you again.
We’d also like this to be the start of an ongoing conversation through the LinkedIn Group we’ve started for this purpose. Please continue sharing your valuable thoughts, comments and feedback here.
As the debate on health care reform continues, The White House is interested in the most important perspective on health care: yours. Office of Health Reform Director and Counselor to the President Nancy-Ann DeParle has posted a question on LinkedIn Answers to engage in a dialogue with over 3.6 million health care professionals on LinkedIn.
DeParle says, “Recently doctors and medical professionals from across the country visited the White House to share their experiences with health care. Please watch the video to hear what they have to say and tell us what you think”.
Have your voice be heard in the health care debate: Respond to The White House’s question here. DeParle will discuss selected responses in an upcoming webcast.
Thanks to the thousands of small business owners and professionals for submitting your questions to the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) through LinkedIn Answers on some of the most important issues you’re dealing with around health care. We appreciate the thoughtfulness and passion with which you’ve crafted these questions.
Given below are the questions from LinkedIn’s small business community that were answered by the CEA. Check out a more detailed response to these questions in the video above:
1. How will the current health care proposals level the playing field so small businesses can effectively compete with large corporations for human capital?
- Abraham Jankans, President & CEO at LaunchPad Careers Inc. (Los Angeles)
2. How will you make health care affordable and available to small business? What about co-ops, affordable rates and inclusion of pre-existing conditions?
- from Kyra Cavanaugh, President of Life Meets Work Inc. (Chicago)
Kyra’s commentary:
For so many of us who’ve left jobs in corporate America with great health benefits to forge our own path through entrepreneurship, our families are left to suffer with sub-standard insurance and inclusion in the class of under-insured Americans.
3. How will you improve competition in health care, to allow for more competitive health plans, and what with this plan to do promote a more health environment through wellness?
- from A.J. Vazquez III, Founding Partner, AJV-Attorneys at Law (Miami)
A.J.’s commentary:
Affordability and availability. A small business owner should have a competitive selection of comparable health plans to choose from. As a small business owner taking care of my people is important to me. Creating an environment that focuses on wellness is a priority at my law firm. Healthy, productive employees are not only great for your company but is ultimately great for their respective families and our communities at large. It’s a win – win situation in the end that’s well worth the effort.
4. How did we get from providing insurance as a benefit, to the “requirement” that businesses provide insurance?
- from Marc Young, President at Zantech, Inc (watch repair company in Peoria, Illinois)
Marc’s commentary:
If we recognize that there are three basic tiers in the health care issue. Tier one – the providers (doctors, hospitals), this is where the “cost factors” begin. Many providers do not post their prices and they are not generally required or incented to be competitive with real cost hidden by the other Tiers; Tier two – the insurance companies, help to hide these costs and tack on their own costs as well as profits they earn; and Tier three – business that provide health coverage, although not directly adding to the cost of healthcare must increase their prices to generate more profits to cover the costs passed on to them from Tiers 1 and 2 less whatever recovery of costs they can get from their employee base. Since Insurance was never intended to be a perk but rather to be a necessary component of running a business, provided to compete for better employees.
5. Is making small businesses responsible for providing health care simply giving a competitive advantage to big businesses? Why not start with Tort reform and mandating insurers to cover pre-existing conditions with all policies being full portable, regardless of state, company or position?
- from Donald Rossberg, President of Dataworks, Inc. (IT consulting firm in Kansas City, Missouri)
To read more questions submitted by our users over the past week (over 1500 submissions), please go here.
As I’ve voiced before, small businesses are critical to our economy. On LinkedIn, over 12 million of you own or work at a small business. That’s why we’ve teamed up with the White House to make sure your voice is heard.
Today in his weekly address, President Barack Obama focused on health care for small businesses and announced that the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) just released a report on The Economic Impact of Health Insurance on Small Businesses and their Employees. The report highlights the essential role of small businesses in our economy and calls for health care reform to reduce the burdens that the current system place on them.
The President is asking for your feedback. CEA Chair Christina Romer has posed a question on LinkedIn to engage in a dialogue with the small business community. She will be addressing your comments and questions in a live online video chat this coming Wednesday. We urge you to take part in this important dialogue and share your expertise and insights with our policy makers.
Just a few months ago Michael Friedenberg, CEO of CXO Media asked what three qualities best describes a CIO. And, just a few weeks ago former CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner, asked the perfect follow-up question:
which CEO and/or company most successfully, consistently and thoroughly embodies innovation to maximize business results?
Almost 800 professionals answered the question. While a few answers predicted the demise of the “Star-CEO” role, the majority cited examples of CEOs such as Steve Jobs or companies like Southwest Airlines and Google.
Here’s a sampling:
Neal Lachman, Chairman & CEO at N.S. Lachman & Co.
We may have some visionary founder or executive that will occasionally play the charismatic CEO role, but the era of the CEO as the poster-child of great innovation and great leadership is gone due to the job-hopping tendencies of today’s (short-term minded) CEOs.
Apple has done amazing things with computing and more recently Consumer Electronics devices. They have a unnatural ability to bring out converged platforms and extend CE devices with an obsession for the form/factor itself and more importantly the surrounding value added services and products. For example, iPod went from a product, to a platform to a full-fledged eco-system of products and services.
And, like it or not they changed the way record labels, artists, etc. view the distribution and monetization of music now. They’re doing it again with iPhone.
How to tap into the wisdom of your crowd using LinkedIn Answers:
1. Ask your Network: Need an answer in a particular area of professional expertise. LinkedIn has hundreds of categories in the professional space ranging from the mundane to the obscure.
2. Search for Answers: Don’t have time to ask a question. Never mind. Somebody may have encountered the same issues you have, may have asked the question on LinkedIn and found a satisfactory solution to it.
3. Help your Network with your Answers: Want to earn some Digital Karma? Answer questions in your area of expertise that can help both your professional network as well as others looking for similar solutions.
Thomas Friedman, Foreign Affairs Columnist, New York Times and best-selling author of Hot, Flat and Crowded, asks over 30 million professionals on LinkedIn if the current financial crisis could be the end of green? The question, posted recently on LinkedIn, has already garnered over 400 answers and you can now join the conversation too.
The volatile economic situation in the USA has been up, front and center in the news these past few weeks throughout the globe. It’s of particular significance to small business owners in this part of the globe given the political climate. Just ask Joe, the Plumber.
Today’s featured question comes from Bill Dunkelberg, Chief Economist, NFIB, National Federation of Independent Business. Bill asks small business owners what they are doing “to keep customers happy and coming back during these difficult economic times.”
The latest NFIB (National Federation of Independent Business) Economic report shows that “decreasing sales” is now the No.1 concern for small businesses. A recent LinkedIn community discussion recommended “focusing on your existing customers” as the top measure for dealing with economic downturn . How would you best work with your customers so they will keep their business with you and ride out this storm together?
The answers featured keywords such as “trust”, “communications”, “value”, “passion” and more. Take a read here. Given below are a couple of answers that exemplify the common themes.
Steve Kownacki, Producer/Director/Owner @ Final Focus Productions, writes:
Service. Service. And oh, service. We have 2 main words in our mission statement “value” and “passion”. Exemplify them in everything you do and everyone you communicate with. Treat each client as though they are your only client. You be honest about what you can deliver for a given
budget.
Just got back from lunch with a long-time client – they gave us 2 new jobs! – his comment: “I come to you because I have no worries. I know it’s in good hands.” This is all I ever need to hear. But never take it for granted.
Ronn Irving, Vice President, the TASCON Group, opines:
Many business owners and their “Trusted Advisors” are going through the process of planning for the coming year. When they review their performance to date and forecast for changes in the coming year, it becomes clear they need to have a plan in place to generate more revenues to offset the skyrocketing costs of doing business.
There are three ways to do that – 1. Control costs, both fixed and variable costs. 2. Increase sales – sell more widgets. 3. Increase sales price.
Bill Dunkelberg is the Chief Economist at NFIB, and a featured speaker at the Weather the Economy Forum, a series of webinars dedicated to helping small and mid-sized businesses survive and thrive in a tough
economy.
Our featured question this week is from Seth Caplan, a young Hollywood producer, who asks his network, “Do you want to see more independent films in theaters?”
It’s a timely question to ask, as Seth has a film opening at limited theaters this weekend. “How do we now cut through the clutter of Hollywood blockbusters,” Seth asks, “to reach a bigger share of the American audience?” While major motion pictures might open at 4,000 screens nationwide, this indie film has only 25 screens to make a good impression. That’s a tiny opportunity to generate a bonafide buzz. But Seth’s feature has already garnered thoughtful reviews in the New Yorker and the New York Times, a good signal that this indie flick is being taken seriously.
“In Search of a Midnight Kiss”, written and directed by Alex Holdridge, is a story about finding some kind of meaningful companionship, if even just for New Year’s Eve. If the crowd at LA’s Downtown Film Festival is any judge, the film has found something meaningful. Attendees reveled in an obvious rapport with Craigslist and MySpace romance when the film had its hometown premiere last week at the Orpheum Theatre. Clearly they knew a thing or two about where love meets Web 2.0.
But where Holdridge’s film brings the mores of social networking to the big screen, Seth is using LinkedIn as a tool to build his film business behind the scenes.
“It’s a way I can manage my contacts from all the positions I’ve had,” Seth told us. “I feel like I have access to my business contacts—and their contacts—at my fingertips to pull in resources when I need them.”
Which aptly describes the needs of producer. Perhaps a telling sign of business acumen, one of Seth’s first ventures was adapting the mathematical novella “Flatland” for the small screen. This film has done well selling to an educational audience, offering a unique diversity to his young portfolio of indie film. “In Search of a Midnight Kiss,” meanwhile, has a very different business plan.
“US box office is a tiny piece of the pie compared to international rights and home video,” said Seth, who has an MFA from the American Film Institute. “The way that we’re going to turn a profit is through international showings. We’ve already grossed half a million [dollars] in the UK box office. Our opening week in Greece we were the number 7 film in the nation. We sold every ticket for every screening for a week. We sold the theatrical rights in Spain, Scandinavia, Poland, Turkey, Israel.” Not bad for a $25,000 film.
Still, Seth and the small cast and crew of “Midnight Kiss” are hoping for good traction in US theaters. They’ll have at least until November to catch the hearts of American movie watchers. Until then, Seth is seeking qualified answers about finding a sporting chance against the studios.
And perhaps he’s taking solace in that $500,000 UK gross.
You can never go wrong by starting off the week with LinkedIn Answers’ question of the week. Hopefully, with each passing question that we highlight, you get to stumble upon yet another category that you did not realize existed within Answers’ extensive ecosystem.
This week, we focus on a category that’s top of mind for most LinkedIn users – Career Management. Yes, we even have an entire category of LinkedIn Answers dedicated to that space. While you could spend hours reading through the numerous well thought out answers, here’s a quick overview of a recent question that grabbed my attention.
While Michael found many of the answers satisfactory, he picked the following answer from Andre Mendes, Chief Information Officer at Special Olympics International, who describes some of the qualities of a CIO, as he sees it:
Courageous, innovative, reliable
Courageous because often CIOs will have to be the change agents that their CEOs/COOs want them to be while not benefiting from their support when the legacy machine rears it ugly head.
Innovative, because as technology takes over almost every aspect of our lifes, innovation is a prerequisite to survival and commercial success.
Reliable, because no system regardless of its excellence is worth its salt unless it can be counted on to be available 24/7.
It is an extremely rewarding yet unbelievable ingrate position.
Check out the 16 other answers that Michael identified as “Good Answers” and feel free to ask your professional network a question here.
“I’d like to thank the LinkedIn users for taking the time to respond to my question. I appreciate your many thoughtful answers and would like to thank you for the kind words and good wishes. I hope you will continue to support the rebuilding efforts in China to help deserving children find schools where they can learn in safety.”
Yao has also picked five respondents to receive 20 raffle tickets each. Here are their five profiles and excerpts from their winning answers:
“There are many similarities between the playing field and the boardroom. Both strategize their next move, both are continually updating the tools of their trade, both use key personnel to inspirit employees to reach success. Regardless of your profession, the following key points can help you reach your potential…” Read more here.
“The discipline of setting goals and constant evaluation of my performance and associated equipment related perfectly with business. Being pragmatic in meeting business objectives and benchmarking all of the critical factors of success is exactly the same. In my sport a lot of the results were dependant on not just the athlete but the equipment, training programmes, diet etc. Measuring and evaluating what my competition was doing and using in small detail
helped me to understand what factors were making the biggest impacts and also helped me asses my strengths and weaknesses…” Read more here.
“As someone who has played sport (rugby, cricket) at a high level but never professionally I have taken with me many qualities which you learn on the field. Team work, leadership, competitiveness, resourcefulness, cooperation, dogmatism, quick thinking and drive. These things have helped me in my work life but were obviously noticeable when I did a year of teaching for 7 to 13 year olds…” Read more here.
“Yao, Finding my sport was tough as I believed that I had little athletic ability. But when I began learning dressage, I found my passion. I learned… see more that an athlete can be created with hard work and mental toughness. The gift the sport and horses gave to me was self-confidence. And most of my life lessons I learned by experience riding…” Read more here.
“Yao Ming – Yes, playing sports growing up made a significant difference in the way I approach business today. (and still helps today when I get… see more frustrated and need a good outlet!) Some of the lessons that carryover from sports:
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[Ed. Note: This is a guest post from Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director at the Office of Health Reform and Counselor to the President, in response to comments from the health care community on LinkedIn regarding the challenges faced by health care professionals in their state]
