Some experts think so.
The year ahead may be a turning point, as a national health-care consumers coalition formed late in 1996 initiates an agenda to organize consumers at the grassroots level, create models for legislative protection, demand standards for care providers, join forces with other organizations, and distribute information to help consumers make intelligent decisions about their care and, if necessary, challenge limits on their options. Washington, D.C., was the site for the series of formative meetings of the new Consumer Coalition for Quality Health Care. Rodwin, associate professor of public and environmental affairs, is also an attorney with a doctorate in health policy and author of the book, Medicine, Money and Morals . Organizations sending participants included the American Association of Retired Persons, the Coalition for Nursing Care Reform, individual state organizations, representatives of organizations for persons with disabilities, and consumer unions, among others. Their common goal was to create a basis for joint action in health-care consumer protection.