ABSTRACT
Health care remains a political issue dividing public opinion in the United States, mainly because regulatory and administrative structures have transformed the nation’s health-care system in recent years. For some Americans, that has meant too much complexity and far too much paperwork. For other Americans, it has meant greater patient satisfaction and more efficient health-care facilities. Politics is part of all this. Like those in other industries, health-care administrators must now reckon with different rules for reimbursement and new, value-based measures of health outcomes. For medical practitioners, that has meant adjusting long-standing practices for how the right kind of care can be delivered to their patients. Threading the needle among doctors, nurses, patients, hospital systems, pharmaceutical manufacturers, insurance companies, and state and federal government therefore requires an entirely new set of skills. Without question, political communication skills will be preeminent among them.
