Town Halls

Patients, nurses, doctors, hospitals and employers have the most significant opportunity in decades to unite in order to make our health care system rational and fair. Watch one in a series of statewide town hall meetings where they discuss common problems and consensus solutions.

If you'd like to participate in a local town hall meeting or you have a possible solution, contact us and get involved.

Michael Finney of KGO-TV (ABC) moderated the prototype town hall on February 20th. The 1 hour program aired March 2nd at 7 PM to a viewership of approximately 1.2 million. 40 stakeholders including, Daniel Zingale of he Department of Managed Health Care, Senator Liz Figueroa, Lee Blitch of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Steve Thompson of the California Medical Society, hospital administrators, nurses and consumers helped kicked-off the town hall series in San Francisco.

• Read the Transcript
• Watch the Video*

Adelphia Communication's Bill Rosendahl moderated the 90 minute Los Angeles town hall which aired on a repeat basis to 1.6 million homes in Los Angeles County during the month of July. The California Channel subsequently aired the Adelphia town hall on Thursday, September 5 reaching nearly 6 million homes statewide. This event feature 45 Los Angeles regional and statewide voices, including the President of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, several latino organizations, three state legislators, uninsured consumers and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

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• Watch the Video*: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

During the week of November 11th FTCR worked with San Diego's KGTV (ABC) on a 3-day health care series that culminated in a town hall event at the County Administration Center moderated by KGTV's Lee Ann Kim. Segments of the event, which hosted over 100 San Diego consumers, hospital CEOs, small business owners and others, were aired that night on KGTV. The event was taped and aired in full on the County Television Network on December 12 reaching 725,000 subscribers. In addition to the town hall, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) worked with KGTV to produce two health care investigative stories on HMO arbitration and abusive practices that aired on Thursday, November 14th. Also on that evening FTCR organize a live 2-hour on air phone bank of health care experts in the KGTV studio that responded to over 500 consumer health care questions.

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• Watch the Video*: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

FTCR and the California Health Consensus Project participated in a live 1 hour KPCC radio town hall hosted by Larry Mantel that featured call-in listeners and quests: Jerry Flanagan of FTCR, Dr. Cousineau of the USC Keck School of Medicine, Michael Tanner of the CATO institute, Tom Epstein of Blue Shield of California, Steve Thompson of the California Medical Association. KPCC is an NPR affiliate station based in Pasadena California.

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• Listen to the Audio*

Leisure World, a retirement community in Southern California, is the first municipality in the nation exclusively for senior citizens. Leisure World has 18,000 residents with an average age of 77, and a minimum age requirement of 55. In attendance at the town hall were Don R. McCanne, retired physician and national board member of Physicians for a National Health Plan; Felix Schwarz, Executive Director of Health Care Council of Orange County; Bea Levin, a retired Orange County nurse; Ted Rosenbaum, Political Coordinator for People for a National Health Plan; and small business owners Howard Meek and Marilyn Meek; and 60 retirees. The event, which will be aired on the Channel 6 cable television station, focused on the impact of Medicare and Medicaid privatization on senior consumers. Consensus discussions elements included the need to create a state-run health care bulk purchasing program as an alternative to the private health care market.

FTCR worked with the award winning weekly PBS television news magazine, California Connected, to develop two cutting edge health care programs modeled on our successful town halls. The first 1-hour program aired statewide on April 17th and provided point-of-view interviews with each of the major stakeholder groups: consumers, business owners, health professionals and health insurers. The second 45-minute show aired state-wide on May 29th brought together 15 leading voices in health care reform for an all-day �pizza session� where reform advocates, businesses owners and consumers worked with a dispute resolution counselor to developed an outline for universal health care reform. Following each show, FTCR participated in one hour Internet chats with viewers. Produced through a unique collaboration of KCET-Los Angeles, KPBS-San Diego, KQED-San Francisco and KVIE-Sacramento, California Connected is seen throughout the entire state.

• Watch the 4/22/2003 California Connected Video*
• Watch the 5/30/2003 California Connected Video*

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