Public Health Intersection

Earlier this week I was at a national meeting of public health related organizations where much of the discussion was focused around what public health might look like in response to the passage of healthcare reform.

There were also representatives from the federal government, philanthropy and public health think tanks participating in the workshops and dialogue.

When asked the question, “What should public health be doing to address the upcoming changes in healthcare reform?” the common answer was, “We’ll have to wait to see what happens”.

This brings me to the title of the blog.

Earlier this spring, Hall of Fame Broadcaster, Ernie Harwell, passed away.

Ernie was the voice of the Detroit Tigers while I was growing up and up until about 10 years ago. He had many great catch phrases and one of my favorites was his call of third strikes when the batter didn’t even attempt to swing at the ball.

Ernie would call “Strike three!” and then often observe that the batter was left, “…standing like the house by the side of the road.”

You may ask, “What’s all this baseball stuff got to do with public health and healthcare reform?”

Just this, public health needs to start its metaphorical swing now with regard to designing how it will look and what it will do in a reformed healthcare system lest we be left standing like the house by the side of the road.