For more than 30 years, Kettering Foundation has organized A Public Voice, bringing together policymakers and practitioners of deliberative democracy from around the country to share the value of a deliberative public and to discuss the findings of citizen deliberations. This year's event, which was held on May 5 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, focused on preliminary findings on two issues important to all Americans: health-care costs and economic opportunity. 

 

Representatives of National Issues Forums and other deliberative democracy groups discussed the concerns that have emerged from more than 250 forums on health-care and economic security issues. A panel of elected officials and policymakers responded to that discussion. "There's never been a moment where we've needed public input on payment models [for our nation's health-care system] more," commented panelist Frederick Isasi, director of the health division at the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.

 

At the event, Kettering released an interim report on deliberative forums that used materials prepared by Kettering researchers for the National Issues Forums. The report details the results of forums held in 2015-2016 using the Health Care: How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care We Need? issue guide and forums held in 2016 using the Making Ends Meet: How Should We Spread Prosperity and Improve Opportunity? issue guide. Forums on both issues will continue throughout 2016. The interim report is drawn from the work of NIF members and forum participants. To compile the report, researchers from Kettering and Public Agenda attended forums, talked with forum moderators, reviewed questionnaires filled out by forum participants, and analyzed transcripts of forums.

 

If you didn't get a chance to watch the livestream of the event on May 5, the archived version, as well as the interim report, are both available here.