rural health symposium

["Steve Cooke" <scooke@uidaho.edu>]

Dear Visionaries,
 	About 50 people attended Saturday's discussion of rural health issues on
the Palouse. The panel of 8 local experts gave on overview of the issues
associated w/ public health, primary care, and specialized care. There
appears to be significant issues and associated tradeoffs with setting
relative priorities within and between each of these areas of health care.
These issues are only compounded by the distance and population density
problems in rural areas.
	Health care seems like a good example of a system of interrelated
activities that trips up on laissez faire economics. Without an
overview/plan there is no one entity responsible for looking at the big
picture. The result is a pathwork of health care policies made by
fed'l/state/local gov't, insurance co., employers, hospitals, doctors,
patients etc. that we back into. The results are policies and procedures
that protect some people's interests a lot w/o necessarily protecting the
community as a whole. Sound familiar?
	The Daily News, Latah County (Paul Kimmel), UI School of Communication
(Kenton Bird) and League of Women Voters are to be complimented for their
efforts in organizing this event. The Starbucks coffee was good too.
Steve Cooke