ProCare is an application of modern political action theory to health care reform. Seasoned politicos are convinced the most effective way to influence what happens in our legislatures is to educate the public through the media – e.g. radio, TV, the internet. The previously accepted “best way” to influence legislation was, of course, through hiring lobbyists. Lobbyists seek to educate and otherwise influence legislators. Legislators heavily depend upon the information brought to them by lobbyists; there is no other way their staffs could garner the required information. No other way, that is, unless many legislators are repeatedly hearing from multiple informed constituents about the same issue.

As reported earlier in the Independent Practitioner, an interesting switch from influencing partisan politics to influencing health care delivery is taking place in North Carolina. The implications are national. The final chapter is yet to be written in this experiment and psychologists have a chance to influence the outcome. Some physicians, optometrists and pharmacists became fed up with having insurance companies tell them how to deliver health care. They banded together to hire two successful and seasoned political operatives to form ProCare. Because Blue Cross Blue Shield of N.C. is by far the largest insurance company in the state, ProCare zeroed in on it. Quickly they discovered that this “non-profit” insurance company was well on its way to converting to for-profit status, a move which would have removed it from the considerable oversight inherent in its non-profit status.

ProCare was told by everyone they approached that there was no way to stop BCBS. It was all but a “done deal.” ProCare did not agree, and instead launched a blistering media campaign to add to other forces objecting to this conversion. The media campaign educated the public by challenging BCBS’s crafty maneuvers to persuade the people of NC into thinking that a for-profit NC-BCBS would be in the public’s best interest.

The conversion train was totally derailed and the “all-but-done deal” was not done. The informed and alerted people spoke loud and clear and the legislature listened. The key is to get people to listen - as we know, no easy task - and the advertising folks know how to do this.

ProCare’s next objective is to get Blue Cross to start acting like the non-profit it is supposed to be. Through the media, they exposed the mega-million dollar increases in compensation BCBS was giving its executives, the “excessive” profits it was stockpiling, and the lavish junkets it was giving its corporate staff and lobbyists. They highlighted that all of this activity at BC was taking place while BCBS continually raised its premiums to the people. Their blog (http://www.procare.org) has become a bee-hive of activity. They reached out to other health care professionals to strengthen ProCare. They are still reaching out – and because of the importance of this struggle, folks beyond North Carolina are responding

The Blues have responded by suing ProCare, alleging that ProCare conspired to purloin and use proprietary in-house information in publicizing the unflattering truth about BCBS’s policies and activities. They have also intimated that ProCare operates behind a veil of secrecy. Go to www.procare.org and see the “secrecy” for yourself. The brouhaha has resulted in continuing media coverage, each time with a repetition of the Blue Cross excesses, magnifying many times what ProCare would have been able to purchase!

The NC Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers Inc. www.ncmentalhealthcoalition.org supports the main mission of ProCare because it echoes our own, i.e. to see that patients and health care professionals make health care decisions rather than insurance companies.

Our alliance with ProCare enables us to use the resources of the best and the brightest of opinion molders and the most modern of communication technology and techniques to accomplish our goal. We also like magnifying our voice by allying with other health care professionals and patients. Visit ProCare on the internet www.procare.org and see what they’re about. They need you and you need them. We all need each other to promote affordable patient-centered health care.

Mary Kilburn, Ph.D., maintains an independent practice in Raleigh, North Carolina, is past-president of the NC Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, Inc., advisory Board member to the National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, Inc., and a member of the Interdivisional Task Force on Health Care Reform.

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