Chris Palmedo
Director of Public Affairs, Northwest Health Foundation
For fifteen years or so, I served as a communications officer in a variety of managed care organizations — including a nonprofit local HMO, a locally owned independent for-profit, and a California company whose flagship product was a Medicare HMO. During this time, I witnessed the transition from the traditional insurance practice of paying for sickness and disease to trying to prevent it in the first place.
It took them awhile, but eventually, insurance companies realized that if they were paying for all this expensive healthcare, it would be a wise to try and address prevention.
HMOs eventually adopted population-based programs focusing on diabetes, healthy pregnancies, tobacco cessation, and general wellness.
Community Health Priorities is now asking is how we can move even more upstream than that. We know that even diseases attributable to individual behavior, like obesity, are influenced by underlying conditions such as poverty, stress, agro-business marketing, inadequate opportunities to walk places, substandard housing, and other environments (AK Rice Institute, 2008).
So how can we prioritize health in our society in a way that improves the health of everyone at a much earlier stage than when they get to the insurance company – or worse, the doctor and with no health insurance?
As one of the administrators of this site, I’m seeking guest voices – throughout Oregon and beyond – to discuss this idea, and help launch solutions that lead us on the path to better health – for all.
Entries by this Author:
Germans React to Healthier Kebab - Would Americans?Interview: Alexis Gomez, Student Photographer
Interview: Banlin Garcia, Student Photographer
Interview: Vishnu Rajan, Student Photographer
Is He Right?
“A more healthy nation”
Promoting Healthy Behavior: How Much Freedom? Who’s Responsibility?
Do we need an Oregon Index of Health and Well-Being?
Could we use a “Keep Oregon Healthy” Campaign?
What is public health anyway?
