The Alliance for Health, as a non-profit organization, is working for optimal health and high quality health services at the lowest possible cost through health planning. Its objectives are:
- Bringing people together to focus on health care issues
- Identifying and prioritizing community health care issues
- Presenting recommendations to the community at large
- Developing broad support from all segments of the community to solve health care issues
Q: Why Plan?
A: Resources are limited. It is important to decide how to spend our resources to best meet the needs of our community. A few dollars invested in planning can reap big savings long-term.Q: Why should you care about health planning?
A: As citizens, we all pay for health care in many ways: insurance premiums, taxes, inflated prices of goods and services, charitable contributions, etc. Since we have such a large stake in health care costs, shouldn't we also have a voice in how health care dollars are used? The Alliance provides that opportunity, by fostering roundtable discussion among all segments of the community.Q: Why is it important for businesses to invest in good planning?
A: Most businesses already appreciate the value of planning. Being a part of good planning for the health care needs of West Michigan's future is a sound investment. Lower health care costs in the community help businesses to grow strong, keeping their dollars focused on employees - not overhead. A sound local economy attracts new business and creates new jobs, naturally benefiting the entire community.Q: With more than 40% of health care costs being paid by government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, isn't Uncle Sam better equipped to manage this job? Or, people like physicians and insurance companies who know more about the health care industry?
A: Actually, the government tries to manage health care across the country in many ways. However, planning is best done at the local level, with the combined voice of those impacted by health care, including citizens, businesses, governmental agencies, insurance companies and health care providers.Naturally, each component has its own area of expertise. At times, vested interests make it difficult to fully understand the broader needs of the community, even though we all strive for the same goal - better service with manageable costs. It makes sense to involve all perspectives of the marketplace to achieve this end.