By Gary Erickson, Owner and Founder, Clif Bar, Inc.

This paper was originally published as a part of the CodeBlueNow! Papers series in November 2005 in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

About 15 years ago, from a garage I shared with my dog, assorted outdoor gear and a couple of trumpets, I founded the business that would become Clif Bar, Inc. Back then, it seemed natural to combine my passion for endurance sports with a lifelong love of food and pleasure at the table.

Today, Clif Bar is the leading maker of organic and natural energy foods and beverages.  You may wonder what I have to add to the discussion about health care. Truth is, I think a lot about the health and well being of my Clif Bar colleagues and our consumers. At its very core, this company is about health.

Clif Bar makes energy products for active people to enjoy while they’re out pursuing their passion. We make healthful products, based on sound nutritional science. Unlike most of the chemically-laden products in the sports nutrition field, Clif and Luna bars, gels and beverages are made without artificial ingredients and harmful trans fats. We’ve converted many of our products and ingredients to organic because we feel that this form of agriculture is better for our planet. We are proud to sponsor athletes of all ages and abilities because we model healthfulness in all aspects of our business.

A focus on health also translates to the way we treat our employees. I’ll give you some examples. In our Berkeley, Calif., headquarters, home to about 100 employees, there’s a full gym offering about 25 fitness classes, all during business hours. We have four personal trainers working full time to help our employees stay strong. We keep a couple of loaner bikes tuned up and ready to go, so that employees can pedal, rather than drive, to complete local errands. Employees can take part in company sponsored bike rides, ski trips and other outings – strictly optional activities, but you may be surprised at how popular they’ve become.

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By Steve Case, Co-founder of AOL and CEO of Revolution, LLC

This paper was originally published as a part of the CodeBlueNow! Papers series in November 2005 in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

I’m often asked why I chose to enter the health care industry, and become an advocate for sweeping change, even though I have no real background in the field. The answer comes from personal experience. Even a family as fortunate as mine isn’t immune from the problems that everyone else faces in dealing with the health care system. In its most extreme form, I saw caring doctors and nurses trapped in an inhumane bureaucracy when my brother, Dan, died from a brain tumor in 2002. And, on the more run-of-the-mill side of things, as a parent, I’ve been frustrated when a child has developed a fever or a twisted ankle on a weekend – and the only choices were waiting until Monday to see a doctor, or going to a hospital emergency room.

In these experiences, and others, I’ve seen a system that fails to put the patient first. I’ve seen waste we wouldn’t tolerate in other industries. And I’ve seen doctors and nurses unable to spend time doing what they do best: taking care of patients, not filling out forms or dealing with paperwork. It doesn’t have to be this way. At Revolution Health, I’m putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak, by investing in ideas fall into three categories: content, coverage, and care.

By “content,” I mean that every person should have access to the information and tools needed to help make the best health care decisions for your family. Right now, you can pick a restaurant online – why shouldn’t it be just as easy to find the right doctor on the Internet? Right now, your kids can research their homework online – shouldn't you have equally easy access to the latest fact-checked information about an ailment that you or a loved one has contracted? Right now, you can manage your financial records or bill paying online – shouldn’t you be able to do the same for your personal health records and health care finances? Right now, you can easily connect online with folks who share your interest in needlepoint, or motorcycle riding, or baseball teams – shouldn’t there also be a place to connect with those who share your health concerns, when you need support, information, or comfort? At Revolution Health, we’re building an online portal that will meet these needs, and many others.

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By Elizabeth A. McGlynn, PhD, RAND Health

I work at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world.

At RAND Health, where I am the associate director, we study problems related to the costs of health care, access to the health system and the quality of medical care.

For nearly 20 years, I've been investigating how well the U.S. health care system delivers services that are consistent with professional standards and good science. I've found that most people assume they are already getting top-quality medical care – but unfortunately, this is often not the case. People are dying needlessly as a result.

A major RAND study I led found that American adults on average get only about half of the health care services they need to prevent, diagnose and treat common medical problems that are the main causes of death and disability. The study found that the average adult needed about 16 health services – specific types of tests or treatments – over two years, but usually received only eight of those services.

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Over a period of 10 weeks in the fall 2005, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a series of guest editorials, “The CodeBlueNow! Papers.” In preparation for our Health Care Town Hall on September 18th, we would like to publish some of these papers again.  Although written three years ago, this was the beginning of our discussion which has now led to our upcoming Voters’ Health Care Platform we will be announcing on September 18th.

Please read and share: 

Re-creating the Health Care System

by Arne Carlson, R, Minnesota and Booth Gardner, D, Washington (September 2005)

By way of introduction, both of us served as Governors for eight years: Minnesota and Washington. As Governors, we created MinnesotaCare and the Basic Health Plan in our states—programs to provide health care for hard working, decent people whose employers did not or could not pay for it. But that was ten years ago. Now these plans are being significantly altered, our economy has changed, and our political climate has eroded.

It is not just Minnesota and Washington. State after state is dismantling similar programs. In
Tennessee alone this year--to balance the state budget—over 191,000 adults will be cut from the
TennCare program. It will also cut benefits for hundreds of thousands of others because it cannot afford the $8.7 billion program. Missouri intends to completely dismantle its Medicaid program by 2008. Now, instead of working together to build programs, hundreds of thousands of people are without health insurance with precious few places to turn. This is not inconsequential—one of every five Americans under 65 has no health insurance.

Couple this with changes in the economy and it spells trouble. Jobs are being outsourced to other countries largely due to costs such as health care. This leaves even more people without health insurance, because under the current system when you lose your job, you lose your health care.

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Special thanks to the Editorial Page of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for their leadership and vision in publishing this unprecedented series originally.