Quality of care: giving consumers a say

In this era of market-driven health care, there's a lot of talk about quality, but low-income consumers and their advocates have not always been part of that discussion. In recent years, many have focused more attention on expanding coverage and promoting enrollment. Now that's shifting, and those who've long advocated consumer involvement as a way to improve health care for all are focusing more on the quality issue. They're discovering that what health plans mean by quality often overlooks just those quality-of-care areas that most concern consumers. This issue of States of Health looks at quality, and shows how an initiative funded by the Nathan B. Cummings Foundation could contribute to a health care system in which a fuller, more consumer-oriented definition of quality actually counts.