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How Relevant Do We Want to Be?

As the newly minted state president of AARP, our state's largest consumer organization with 1.1 million North Carolina members and almost 38 million nation-wide, I find it fascinating to advocate for issues that I didn't see as clearly through my long career in the cancer world. Yes, there are differences between how Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials relate, but consumers across the board are beginning to choose how, when, and where they receive care. They are starting to understand that they have options about which system or provider they engage, and they increasingly expect to play an active role in their health and health care decisions. Throughout the past year, we've seen plenty of debate about how we legislate, pay for, and provide health services to our patients. Policymakers, providers, insurers, employers, and the media have all weighed in on what currently exists, and each have opinions about what they want from our system of care and at what price. But our focus still lacks a strong voice from the individuals for whom the entire enterprise is supposed to exist: consumers. In our country, we've been missing the consumer's voice for a long time, but thanks to social media and a very different philosophy about how things should work today, the playing field is quickly changing. As evidence for this new thinking, Stephen Klasko makes the following statement in a recent online article: “Millennials won't tolerate a healthcare system untouched by the consumer revolution that's impacting every other aspect of…