Since we launched our website, thousands of people have joined the discussion about health care – as well as submitted their stories directly to American Moment. We wanted to share some of those stories in this post.

S.D. from Delaware writes:

“Like [President-elect Obama’s mother], my mother died from cancer about four years ago… During her illness, the only healthcare coverage my mother had was Medicare, which offered a 5% discount on prescription drugs. I (being employed by a pharmaceutical company) was aware of the Patient Assist Programs, which provide free medication for patients demonstrating a need, and I was certain my mother would qualify… About six months into her receiving these meds, they stopped coming. On contacting the company to ask why, they stated that patients usually do not live this long, therefore, they had terminated her application. I would like you to imagine the potentially devastating effects of this decision. My mother had bone cancer, which is known to be extremely painful, and the pharmaceutical company arbitrarily decides to stop shipping her medication because they assumed she should have died.”

We’ve also heard from a lot of doctors and nurses who offer their unique perspectives. A neonatologist who treats premature infants in Pennsylvania writes, “We are getting better and better in saving very fragile infants that are increasingly being discharged home to non-existent or deficient services.”

She’s concerned about the curtailment of services for special needs children and hopes the new administration will be able to provide access to care for “ALL children regardless of the parents’ income.”

The strains on the current system are leading a lot of young people to question whether they can truly afford to pursue a career in health care. K.J. is in her second year of medical school in South Carolina.

“I'd like to go into primary care to help out with the shortage, but I’m worried about how that will affect my ability to pay back loans (already approaching $100,000) and to raise a family, considering the long number of hours spent seeing way too many patients in order to keep the practice afloat financially, as well as more hours spent on paperwork in navigating insurance and Medicare/Medicaid. I have no idea what the solutions will be, but I think heading the voices of organizations like the American Medical Association will help.”

Keep sending your stories and ideas our way. We have a lot to learn from you.

A. A. from West Virginia makes a good point when she quotes Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve the problems that we have created with the same thinking that created them.”

Since we opened up our discussion on health care a week ago, thousands of people have shared their stories, experiences, and ideas -- best of all, people have responded to one another, taking the conversation in new and interesting directions.

It's exactly the kind of participation we were hoping for, and that we're counting on. It's what the Transition is all about.

The interest in the subject is clearly intense, so we sat in on a meeting of the Transition's Health Policy Team to introduce you to some of the team's members and give you a feel for how they make decisions.

Senator Tom Daschle, the leader of the Health Policy Team, sat down to tell us how he plans to tackle health care and his future plans for opening up the process further.

Watch the video below.

We sat in on a meeting of the Transition's Health Policy Team to introduce you to some of the team's members and give you a feel for how they make decisions -- and Senator Tom Daschle, the leader of the team, sat down to tell us how he plans to tackle health care.

Author: ChangeDotGov
Keywords: Barack Obama President-elect Tom Daschle health care
Added: December 4, 2008

In the midst of a global financial crisis and rising unemployment, President-elect Obama has assembled a team of seasoned economic experts with records of innovation to get our country back on track.

The task ahead for the team is daunting. In order to craft solutions to these complex problems, they'll have to reach out past Washington and Wall Street for answers.

It will take all of us working together to fix our broken economy, and we want your voice to be part of that process.

We asked Director of the Council of Economic Advisors Christine Romer to kick off the conversation about the economic pressures that Americans are facing every day in their lives.

Join the open discussion and share your thoughts here.

If you want a look at similar discussions we've already hosted on Change.gov, click here.

In the midst of a global financial crisis and rising unemployment, President-elect Obama has assembled a team of seasoned economic experts with records of innovation to get our country back on track.

The task ahead for the team is daunting. In order to craft solutions to these complex problems, they'll have to reach out past Washington and Wall Street for answers.

It will take all of us working together to fix our broken economy, and we want your voice to be part of that process.

We asked Director of the Council of Economic Advisors Christina Romer to kick off the conversation about the economic pressures that Americans are facing every day in their lives.

Join the open discussion and share your thoughts here.

If you want a look at similar discussions we've already hosted on Change.gov, click here.

Enseguida después de que el Presidente-electo Obama presentó a su nominado para Secretario de Comercio, tuvimos la oportunidad de charlar con el Gobernador de Nuevo México Bill Richardson para una entrevista rápida sobre su trasfondo, sobre cuáles son sus metas como Secretario de Comercio y cómo el Presidente-electo Obama le ofreció el trabajo.

Author: ChangeDotGov
Keywords: Bill Richardson Comercio Secretario Barack Obama Presidente-electo
Added: December 3, 2008

The conversations among the online community on Change.gov serve two valuable ends, both of which will play a vital role for the incoming Obama-Biden Administration.

Each discussion between the Transition team and readers provides rich insight into the issues and priorities Americans care passionately about.

In addition, these discussions also allow our team to provide a unique look into the work we do everyday and help make our jobs on the Transition as transparent and open as possible.

These online conversations are truly groundbreaking -- no other transition team has ever opened these types of channels of communication with the American people. We're proud of what we've accomplished so far, and look forward to building this dialogue.

We've read through the thousands of comments posted on Change.gov, and are excited by the volume of participation. To help make our discussions clearer and more valuable, we've put together some tips:

1: Know the comment policy
Our comment policy lays out the basic guidelines for material that should and should not be part of the Change.gov online conversation.

A diverse group of commenters with a variety of opinions post their thoughts on these pages. We won't censor any ideas based on their content as long as the comment is respectful and adds value to the discussion.

2: Set up an account
Setting up an account before you comment helps build a sense of community around these discussions. You can post a comment without an account, but creating your own log in name makes it easier to keep a conversation going with others.

3: Rate other comments
Only after you've set up an account can you take advantage of our dicussion tool's most interactive qualities. We encourage folks to leave their thoughts about other comments -- either by using the thumbs up/thumbs down buttons to rate a comment, or by responding to a particular comment with your own thoughts. This will help keep the liveliest discussions in front of new readers, and will make the community's feedback a valuable part of the conversation.

4: Post a comment
Once you've got something to say, let us know. If you’re responding to the question posed by the post itself, enter your comment in the text field at the top of the discussion. If you want to respond directly to another user, click "Post Reply" at the bottom of that particular comment.

5: Stay on topic
And most importantly, a reminder: on this website, we will submit many important issues and questions for public discussion. When we open a discussion on, say, the economy, it benefits everyone in the community if you comment only on that particular topic.

With our goal of transparency in mind, we turn the question to you:

Tell us about the discussions you would like to have on Change.gov -- use the tool below to share your thoughts.